Find the right life partner who compliments your life is an amazing thing. But with love, as in other things in life, this is not always the case. In her book, the author Barbara Ann (now Barbara Woods Gary), shares the ups-and-downs of being married to Earl Dennison Woods, who would later become the father of renowned golfer Tiger Woods.
Barbara details her story of two young people who fell in love, married, and in the course of their military travels, conceived three children, two sons, Earl Jr., and Kevin, and a daughter, Royce Renay. She goes beyond the sunny, happy days of life to divulge the tragic failure of that marriage, which lasted eighteen years. Following the dissolution, Barbara Ann tells of how she and Earl continued on with their separate lives.
As Barbara continued her life as a single parent raising three children, Earl soon remarried and father another child (Eldrick) who would later come to be known as “Tiger” Woods. The differences between the two families were striking, as world-travel and media highlighted Earl’s new ventures with his talented son Tiger, while Barbara and her three children lead a rather simple, domestic life. Seemingly, it was as if one family was living in the shadow of the other.
Lacking the celebrated talents that Tiger later became noted for, Earl’s first family soon found it difficult, even impossible to compete for their father’s quality time and attention. Although their mother did what she could to keep them from feeling sacrificed or forgotten, there are still mental and psychological scars resulting from their unfulfilled needs when they were young, vulnerable and also, highly impressionable. Certainly, there is no resentment over Tiger’s success, but great sadness remains over the manner in which one family was compromised for another.
This book was released in February 2008 and is an excellent read. It can be purchased on Amazon.com
