I started my genealogy research when I was a preteen, having always been curious, possibly to the point of aggravation, and would nag family members with questions about our family. I was fortunate to occasionally meet with a 2nd cousin who passed on events that she well remembered about my paternal grandmother. This cousin, Daisy Parsons McDougal, died a month after my last visit with her during the early 1990's.

My grandmother, Mamie McDaniel, (1891-1988), was born and raised in Adger, Jefferson County, Alabama.
I remember my grandmother often seemed depressed and would escape to another time and place, lost in thought;
she would always sing and say names of people and places I had never heard of. I asked Daisy if she knew the reason for this, as she and Mamie were very close growing up. (Daisy also lived into her 90's, but was by no means mentally faltering when I last met with her).

Daisy related that at 18, Mamie was engaged to a young man named Grover LaFoy, who was a coal miner. Grover was an orphan and had lived with his uncle's family while growing up. He had recently bought timber land and was planning to make a life with Mamie. Grover took the train when he visited Adger and one weekend, in 1909, he did not show up. Naturally inquiries were conducted and the family received news that Grover had been killed in a freak accident while at work. He was walking through the outdoor area of the mines, when a worker, laboring above him, accidentally dropped a hammer. It struck Grover and he was killed instantly.

Of course, Mamie did not take the news well and had a nervous breakdown. Grover must have been a man of providence,
as he had previously completed and recorded a will naming Mamie as his sole benefactor. Daisy stated Mamie was not herself for some time and that she eventually gave control of the money to her parents. (The land was later sold to Peabody Coal). Possibly as consolation, Mamie married Olin Dunn, a friend of the family. Mamie and Olin had a very unhappy marriage and later divorced (Olin is buried just outside the family plot at Adger Cemetery).

Several years later, Mamie married my grandfather, Henry Glenn Broadwater Sr.(1891-1963). In my opinion, their marriage never seemed happy either. But, Mamie had a life of leisure; my grandfather employed a maid and she never rose before noon. When I would visit, she would teach me Old South, feminine ways. I well remember her frustrating attempts to teach me how to crewel! She would also apply cream to my hands at bedtime and place gloves over them so I would have soft hands (I still do)!

So, Mamie's somber revelations I had witnessed as a kid, with her sitting on the front porch in her rocking chair, finally made sense; she would rock back and forth and sing several songs, some religious but mostly melancholic Irish tunes, and repeatedly say Grover's name over and over. She said things like, "why did you have to go"?, "I miss you so much", etc. Years later when I started fully researching my family history, I was able to prove and document Grover's will, the divorce, among other incidents. Daisy's recollections were vivid and detailed and I truly feel none of this was hearsay nor the tale embellished. Mamie, after 70+ years, had never forgotten the love of her life.