Separating Fact From Fiction

Just so we have things straight here...Beverly Lavone Rose was your mother.
Patricia (Pat) was your grandmother. Beverly never knew her biological father. We all have speculation as to why her real dad never came around, but I will just say he did come to the funeral. I honestly cannot remember his name, but I think it was Richard Rose. He had one arm. I will never forget how devestated he was to hear the daughter he had never had the pleasure of knowing was murdered. I also remember him holding T.J, his youngest grandson, with the one good arm he had. If he went into detail as to why he never came around, I don't remember. The events of the murder and days to follow left us all so dumbfounded and grief-stricken.

Back to your family tree, (or at least the branches that I know). The person you knew as "Mama Tye" was, in fact, your great grandmother, Lois and Elvie was her husband. There children are Dwain(who is married to Kathy) Wyvone (who was married to Bill) Pat (who was married to Russ) and James Elvie. Dwain is the only living great uncle (blood related) you have on this side of the family.

Beverly was an only child, but Wyvone and Bill had Billy and Joey that were your mother's cousins not to far apart in age. In 1990, Bill and Wyvone got a surprise and named her Josie. There is 21 years between the Billy and Josie.

Continuing on....Billy married Teresa (that's me) and we have Stephanie. Joey married and divorced Michelle and they had James during that time. Joey later met Shawna and she brought her three girls into the family: Shay, Cassandra and Chasity.

Oh, Tye did have a sister that recently passed away. Her name was Margie and she was just as ruthless as Tye was. Margie's family doesn't come around much.

Tye and Margie were orphaned at a young age. I suppose that was why she was so animate about taking you three in despite her age. Once I heard there was a house fire that claimed the life of their parents, then I heard it was illness. You'd have to ask Dwain on that. They were raised by an aunt and uncle.

Tye had her downfalls, but she did have an amazing will to survive. This was a woman who in 2 years lost her son-in-law Russ, her husband (Elvie), her daughter, (Pat)and her brother in law (Jimmy was Margie's husband as well as Elvie's cousin...). Pat and Jimmy died about 12 hours apart the day before my birthday. Tye then lost her granddaughter (Beverly), took in you three as babies and had all the circumstances that surrounded a murder to deal with. She found out Wyvone had a chronic illness on top of her Crohn's Disease, then Tye herself had battled breast cancer TWICE and came out spitting nails! She also married Gene...but let's just say he is out of this family and out of our lives and AMEN to that. He was worthless and was part of the reason she didn't recover fully from her stroke. Opinion, maybe, but he refused to take her to rehab. As a result, her mind and physical strength deteriorated quickly. Tye later developed colon cancer, but overcame it as well. A fighter? Absolutely. Given that, she had so much to deal with, it is easy to see why she was so greedy and hardheaded. She was also sharp tongued and had no problem cutting you to the quick.

Shortly after her stroke, it was apparent to several of us that her mind was going as well. She wanted to go fishing at the tank so bad one afternoon, that she headed to the tank without telling anyone, with her walker or scooter and all. Bill ended up finding bobbing up and down in the tank. Balance is always an issue that comes with age especially with a stroke.