Delilah Garrett bio

Delilah Rosemary Glenn was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to George and Martha Glenn on July 13, 1976. As children of an alcoholic father, Delilah and her older sister, Marie, learned early to cope with their father's unpredictability and their parents' arguments. They also learned that nothing was more important in their family than keeping those realities secret.

Despite the Glenns' effort to hide it, their neighbors were aware of George's drinking because he was often loud and verbally abusive to his family but never physically abused them as far as the neighbors' knew.

Delilah's elementary and high school teachers knew her as an overachiever. She always stayed in the top 10% of her class, and her report cards reflected the teachers' appreciation of her competence and responsibility. Although Delilah had friends at school, she never talked to them about her family or invited friends to her home.

Delilah had no trouble being accepted to college to pursue the nursing degree she sought. She attended the School of Nursing at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Upon graduation in 1998, she found a position at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Oxford, where she still works as a neonatal nurse and has earned a reputation as a sensitive and talented caregiver.

In 2000, Delilah accepted a fellow nurse's invitation to join a group from Baptist Memorial on a bowling team. Delilah was reluctant but finally gave in and found she enjoyed the camaraderie of the group. The social time also gave her a chance to interact with people on other teams. There she met Ambrose Garrett.

She was struck by his self-confidence and sincere commitment to his beliefs. He was so sure his ideas and actions were right that being with him gave her a feeling of security. He, in turn, basked in her adulation, and on the anniversary of their first date, he proposed.

Since they have no children, Delilah concentrates her time and attention on her job and her neonatal patients at Baptist Memorial Hospital. She fully supported Ambrose in his efforts with the Whitehall Homeowners' Association but did not participate herself.

Having fielded numerous phone calls from irate HOA members who called to berate Ambrose for some action they deemed unfair or even illegal, she was well aware that her husband was not beloved by all the association members. She smoothed over as many of these situations as she was able but was concerned because the number of calls had recently increased.

She confided to her sister, Marie, that she was worried about Ambrose's drinking. For the last few months, he had been carrying a flask with him everywhere except at work. Flashbacks of her chaotic childhood haunted her, and she worried that Ambrose's "social drinking" had escalated into alcoholism. She told Marie, "I don't know what I'll do if he gets like Dad. I don't think I could live with that again."