Grandmama grew up poor in northeastern North Carolina, and her life became even harder when her mother died in 1918 in the Spanish flu epidemic. She married young to Paul Phelps in the early 1930's and had two children, Ruth in 1933 and my mother Jenette in 1936. They were divorced when my mom was a toddler. She remarried on December 19, 1942 to Haywood C. Morris, and moved to South Norfolk, Virginia (now a part of the city of Chesapeake) where she lived for the remainder of her life. She had one more child, a daughter named Patricia Jean in 1943 who tragically died from a respiratory illness at the age of only two weeks. She had four grandchildren, Johnny Carroll and Eugene Ray by her oldest daughter Ruth, and Lea Anne and Ruth Lynette by Jenette. Her children and grandchildren were her life and the joy of her existence. Grandmama was a gifted gardener, and there was always at least one or more plant cuttings rooting in jars of water in her kitchen window. Once she even rooted a single red florist's rose bloom someone gave her, and she planted it behind her house where it grew quite large and outlived her by several years. I spent much of my childhood in that little house and yard in South Norfolk, and I would not trade my memories of her for anything in the world. She went Home to be with the Lord on January 2, 1993 after a long and suffering-laden illness. Despite the many hardships, illness and suffering she endured throughout her life, Grandmama loved life dearly, and I am proud to be her granddaughter. She will never be forgotten by those who loved her.
Grandmama grew up poor in northeastern North Carolina, and her life became even harder when her mother died in 1918 in the Spanish flu epidemic. She married young to Paul Phelps in the early 1930's and had two children, Ruth in 1933 and my mother Jenette in 1936. They were divorced when my mom was a toddler. She remarried on December 19, 1942 to Haywood C. Morris, and moved to South Norfolk, Virginia (now a part of the city of Chesapeake) where she lived for the remainder of her life. She had one more child, a daughter named Patricia Jean in 1943 who tragically died from a respiratory illness at the age of only two weeks. She had four grandchildren, Johnny Carroll and Eugene Ray by her oldest daughter Ruth, and Lea Anne and Ruth Lynette by Jenette. Her children and grandchildren were her life and the joy of her existence. Grandmama was a gifted gardener, and there was always at least one or more plant cuttings rooting in jars of water in her kitchen window. Once she even rooted a single red florist's rose bloom someone gave her, and she planted it behind her house where it grew quite large and outlived her by several years. I spent much of my childhood in that little house and yard in South Norfolk, and I would not trade my memories of her for anything in the world. She went Home to be with the Lord on January 2, 1993 after a long and suffering-laden illness. Despite the many hardships, illness and suffering she endured throughout her life, Grandmama loved life dearly, and I am proud to be her granddaughter. She will never be forgotten by those who loved her.
