Memories of the Grandmother I never knew

I can only remember having one Grandmother, my mother's mom. I called her Grandma. I never got to know my father`s mother. Her name was Bertha Mae. Grandmother Bertha died when my father was nine years old.

I only have one photo of her that my Grandfather had in his possession and he passed it on to my father. I had searched for a long time for my Grandmothers death certificate. I even contacted the State of Missouri and they stated they could not locate her death record. It took a little ingenuity on my part but I was finally able to conduct a search and find it myself. Her last name was misspelled and her date of death was not consistent with what appeared on her tombstone.

Her Death Certificate was listed under: Bertha M. Eaus as opposed to Bertha M. Eads which it should have been.

Grandmothers cause of death was listed as Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Acute Nephritis. According to Wikipedia, Tuberculosis was one of the principal diseases of poverty.

Public Health Campaigns were launched in the 1920`s to increase the efforts in preventing Tuberculosis. Grandmother also had Acute Nephritis. Wikipedia describes Nephritis as:

Nephritis is often caused by infections, toxins, and autoimmune diseases. It can be caused by infection, but is most commonly caused by autoimmune disorders that affect the major organs. For example, those with lupus are at a much higher risk for developing nephritis. In rare cases nephritis can be genetically inherited, though it may not present in childhood.

In her case it may have indeed been caused by the Tuberculosis. The death certificate states that the Tuberculosis precipitated the diagnosis of the Nephritis, so in all likelihood in her case it was a result of her having the Tuberculosis.


I do know that several of the family members on that side of the family have had various degrees of lung and kidney diseases. My father passed away from Lung Cancer and Renal Failure. He took Dialysis for quite some time before he passed away. One of his Kidneys was malformed and I inherited the same kidney, ours is shaped odd and it shows on X-ray. I wonder if Grandmother had the same thing?

The date on Grandmothers tombstone is incorrect. The correct date of death is listed in her above Death Certificate. The first clue that I came across which verified my suspicions (other than the fact that my father was adamant she died when he was 9 years old, he would have been just 7 in 1939) was my discovery of her alive and well on the 1940 Census.

Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: Bernie, Stoddard, Missouri; Roll: T627_2159; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 104-11.