Theodore

Today's post is about a boy. A young man I never met. Everything I know about him is summed up in seven words and two dates. Those words: Theodore Prendercast, Papa's sweetheart, Our Darling Boy.
February 25, 1902 and May 9, 1909. Theodore lies in eternal rest at Bonaventure Cemetery.

In May this year Carol and I along with our friends Mike and Nancy walked through Bonaventure Cemetery. It is an amazing place. There are some stunning works of art throughout the grounds. None of those touched me in the way this one did. Five words. Just five words. They said everything you needed to know about Theodore and his parents. He was his Papa's sweetheart. You can see Papa going off to work in the morning, perhaps to the docks at the port of Savannah. Maybe to the cotton exchange. Off to the sea to fish. Returning after a day's work to be greeted by his loving son Theodore. Our darling son. The loss wasn't just Papa's. It was a loss to his family. Brothers, sisters, mother, grandparents, we don't know aside from the word "our". I tried to find out. Spent hours on the Ancestry web site. As far as Ancestry goes Theodore Prendercast never existed. No records. Even the extensive records in Find a Grave show nothing. No census records. Theodore was born after the census of 1900 and died before the census of 1910. We don't know how Theodore died. We do know that it was a tragedy. It clearly impacted his family. Papa's sweetheart, their darling boy, barely seven years old was gone. The dreams they had for him. The love they shared. The time they spent together. Somehow cut short. The love, their pain, all conveyed to us in five words. There are more beautiful pieces of art work at Bonaventure. There are longer quotes on tombstones. None spoke to me with the power of those five words. Certainly there were others who lost loved ones. Who placed them for eternal rest at Bonaventure and suffered as greatly at Theodore's family. Somehow, in their pain and grief Theodore's family told us everything we needed to know about him and them. We walk away to our day and our lives knowing over 100 years ago a young boy died. He was loved and he left behind a family devastated by the loss of their "darling boy."

If you wonder about the beauty of Bonaventure Cemetery,

Please take a minute to go to my friend Mike's blog and read his post today which is also about dear Theodore. It is existinginbfe.BlogSpot.com