Barbara Dewberry

My grandma, Barbara Dewberry was born on October, 16th in Bristol, Virginia. She is my mother’s mother, and is now currently living in Howard, CO.

My grandma didn’t have much of a family when she was my age. She had one brother and one sister. She was the oldest child. Then my aunt Joan, then my uncle Kenneth. My grandma was really the peace maker in the house, Joan and Kenneth did not get along at all. My grandma’s mom is my great grandma Hattie. My grandma’s dad was an alcoholic and didn’t spend too much time at home. When he was home he was very hard to get along with. Back then it was wrong to get a divorce so my grandma Hattie could not do anything about it. Unfortunately he was also the head of the house, so whatever he said, went. With my grandma Hattie being gone at work and her husband being gone all the time, my grandma Barbara and the others were left to fend for themselves. At the age of 13 my grandma had a full time job as a waitress, trying to support her brother and sister.

By the time my grandmother was 17 her mother had divorced her first husband and remarried to a more caring man. His name was Clay. My grandma didn’t think too much about it considering she was 17 and almost moved out of the house. Of course she didn’t call him dad, but she wouldn’t have called her real father dad either.

When she was 26 she finally had her first child, Bradford, but we all call him Bo. Then she had my mom a few months later, her name is Elizabeth, but everyone calls her by her middle name, Gay. Then out came my other uncle, Christopher, and of course we all call him Chris. My Papa Dewy (my grandma’s husband) was in the Air force, so they were forced to move many times a year, then they finally settled down in Howard, CO, where my Papa Dewy eventually retired.

In 1994 my Papa Dewy died of a heart attack. He died on April 8th, almost exactly one year before my mom gave birth to me. He was only alive to see my uncle Chris’s children, Shelby and Dillon. After he died my grandma’s life started to spiral. Everything started going wrong, and now she had to plan the funeral, and run her own well drilling service. Plus all her kids were moved out and now she was alone.

My family said that my birth was probably the one thing that made her believe in something, and not give up hope. She had a HUGE hand in raising me; her house was my home up until I was 5. She was the one that would make my favorite stuffed animal Mitzy, talk. She was the one that would sit on the porch steps with me and watch the sun go down, and read me stories, and come check for monsters under my bed. She was my life and I was hers.

Raising a child and housing her and her mother, while trying to run a well drilling service fast and efficiently was not the easiest thing to do in the world.

Up until five years ago my grandma Barbara took care of my Great Grandma Hattie, and my uncle Kenneth. six years ago my uncle Kenneth had a stroke and needed to be in a house with someone he loved. So he and my Grandma Hattie (who had a stroke numerous year before that) went to go live with my grandma. Six years ago my uncle Kenneth also got diagnosed with stomach cancer and died shortly after that. So my grandma was left by herself again taking care of an 86 year old woman in a wheelchair.

To this day my grandma still gets up at 5 o’clock in the morning to take care of everyone in her life. She is my hero because she is everything I want to be when I grow old. She is a mother, grandmother, and a friend, that I can always go and talk to. She will understand anything. Even when you don’t want to talk right that second she will wait, and then at 2 in the morning you will finally want to tell her and she will gladly get up and go sit with you on the kitchen floor and eat white chocolate covered oreos, drink milk and talk away all of your problems. Then when you are finally done talking you and she will sit on the living room couch and watch ‘The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air’ all night. Until you drift to sleep and then wake up to the biggest and best breakfast you have ever seen in your life. Knowing that you love her is all the thanks she needs, that’s just what she tells me at least.