What is a Violet?

"Violet" is the first name of my mother. I am Eve Adam, also known as Harmonic Eve.

Violet is also the last name of the family of origin of my orphan grandmother Bebe.

The photo below is of Bertha Emma Violet at age 10. It was taken at home in Columbus, Ohio, by her brother John, then age 14. These facts were written in Bebe's adult handwriting on the back of the photo.

Bebe was born with the name "Bertha Emma Violet." By the time I arrived, her children and husband called her Bebe. My grandfather Bernie used to tell the true story of hunting for grave sites of Bebe's ancestors. Bernie used to drive her to those sites because Bebe did not drive. They asked the groundskeeper at one graveyard, "Are there any Violets here?" The groundskeeper answered, "Last May there were some over yonder." Now you know the buried don't pick up and leave, so this groundskeeper thought they were looking for flowers, not deceased relatives. If only Bernie could tell this now! The funniest part of any joke I tell is usually how badly I mess it up. I miss Bernie.

Bertha Emma Violet was an orphan by the time she was a nine-year-old child. She was sent to live with her Aunt Jennie. Then when she was only sixteen, she married a much older man. In some respects one could consider this to be an "arranged marriage." It was convenient for Bertha's Aunt Jennie, but also it was desired by Scott, the man who had been Bertha's boss when she worked as a Saturday helper in a bookstore in Columbus, Ohio. Bertha and Scott started their marriage in Oklahoma at the beginning of the twentieth century. Later they moved back to Columbus, Ohio. Together they raised five children, the oldest of whom was Violet, my mother. In my "Harmony of Life" web site, you can read several poems and other items written by my mother. There the credit I give is that the author is "Violet, Mother of Eve Adam." When Bertha became a widow, she married again. With her second husband, Bernie, she provided a home for me. In many ways this was quite a pleasant and fortunate childhood. The sad part of my childhood, however, was that I was completely separated from my father and my Uncle Claude. Also I was frequently, and often for long stretches of time, unable to see my mother, whom I loved dearly. I was expected to call my mother by her first name instead of a more endearing term. Even now, people sometimes are confused because I say "Violet" instead of "Mom." Bertha was by then called "Bebe." I rarely saw any smiles from my grandmother Bebe. Even Violet rarely smiled, but I always felt quite comfortable in her presence, unlike the feeling of vague discomfort I felt in Bebe's presence. When I was a child, we had a large house in the country in the state of Maryland, near Washington, D.C. Bebe's five children all came to visit at various times, along with their mates and their children. The most frequent visitors, besides Violet, were Violet's sister Marion, and Marion's two children, Barbara and George. Other frequent visitors were Violet's sister Lydia and Lydia's husband Jack, as well as Violet's brother Jack and Jack's wife Helen. Violet's brother Claude, who lived in California, did not visit until I was almost grown. My father did not visit at all. He had been left behind in California, where I was born. Because I did not know him, I did not have any interest in one of Bebe's hobbies, genealogy. Since she was an orphan, I knew very few of her relatives, and I took almost no interest in knowing anything about them that she did not mention repeatedly. I could not see any value in knowing all about one side of the family while knowing nothing about the other side. Later, when I was a mother myself, my father's parents told me more about his side of my family. Now I wish I knew even more about all of my ancestors. My grandfather Bernie was a kind, gentle, intelligent man with a sense of humor. I think anyone married to Bebe would have needed these characteristics to survive. How very fortunate I was that he had married Bebe, since he was not a blood relative to me or either of my parents. I did not have a full appreciation of his contributions to my life until I was an adult looking back in time. It was then that I had a much greater understanding of the role he played. Eve Adam, a.k.a. Harmonic Eve, February 20, 2005.

Here's Bertha Violet in 1902 in Oklahoma, after she left Columbus, Ohio, and before her wedding to Scott.

On the back of this photo, in my Grandmother Bebe's handwriting that I know so well, are the words: "Okla. 1902. Horse belonged to Joseph Collins whose daughter made this snapshot the winter I stayed in their home before I was married in July 1903 to Scott B....."

Here, below, is Bebe's firstborn child, Violet. This was probably in 1910. No, she did not spill anything on her dress; that's an ink stain on this photo that was printed on a custom-made postcard. Notice her big hair ribbon, dark long stockings, and high button shoes. I notice that her right hand is behind her back. That is probably because it was not her dominant hand at that age. It is true that Violet was originally left handed and was forced to learn to write with her right hand instead of her dominant left hand. She learned to read and write quite young anyway.

V
I
O
L
E
T


MY MOTHER: This young lady is a double Violet; her first name is Violet and her mother's maiden name was Violet. She loved to read and write poetry, starting at an early age. Two decades after this photo was taken, this child was a beautiful woman who became my mother. I was her only child. When I was born, she named me "Green Bough of Life," which translates into my childhood name, Phyllis Eve. When I married my second husband, I began using my middle name to go with his last name, so now I am Eve Adam, also known as Harmonic Eve.

Click "next page" at the bottom right to continue seeing more family photos in the sequence presented, or use the clickable table of contents to jump to individual pages of your choice. If you continue to click "next page" after reading each page, you will eventually reach page 12, and perhaps be "ready" to switch to the site about Bebe's three youngest children and how they were involved in my life. I'm providing lots of links so you don't have to "follow the yellow brick road" to find your way home. Have fun and come back as often as you like, following whatever path you choose,..... of course!

Eve Adam, a.k.a. Harmonic Eve

	Powered by MSN TV	next page