Grandparents

Not the funniest thread but I really feel like talking about grandparents.

My grandpa died in december and he was the only grandparent I really knew and spent time with because the others were far or dead when I was little.

I always thought that grandparents are something really special because they are just pure history. Stories, traditions, culture, memories, experiences that we didn't have and maybe never will.

How do you feel about your grandparents? Have you had any significative relationships with them? How did that affect you? can you share something about you and them or about their lives that you consider significative?

 

I'll start with some random stuff but it's whar comes in my mind now...

I still regret not going to see my grandpa enough while he was alive and now he is gone and won't come back and that makes me feel horrible. I was planning to make him like an interview about his life and tape it, just to make sure my children maybe could one day watch that and get to know their grand-grand father.
He's been on war, he saw Mussolini, he saw his best friend explode on the ship close to his, he went to Sierra Leone and saw what was that like in the '40s, he came back and met my grandma. They got married and had 3 children that now are 50-60 yrs. I still have those pictures of them together looking somewhere far, the old picture style, and pics of him when he was in the navy during the war.

I did my first steps towards my grandpa when I was little. He was very important to me, and when I told him about my black boyfriend he asked me "why a black guy? Couldn't u just stick to white italians?", but was always so kind with him and while searching on his stuff now that he's dead, my mum found a picture of me and my ex in a frame that he had somewhere in his house...
He was just the coolest granparent I ever had and the last time I saw him he was on a hospital bed with a diaper and was talking about nonsense but he was still the coolest...

 

I had a special relationship with my polish grandfather. I loved him like crazy and he loved me back.
He died in the early nineties.

I remember like we was always sitting in the garden at nights and watching the the stars and he was telling me stories about where he came from( from andromeda) He was reading me books and telling me things about the second world war, how it was for him.
I was always spending my summerholidays there and it was just great.
I wanted to have chicken so I could sell eggs on the marked. He got me 30 little chicken wich all grow into cocks. No hens no eggs! But there was a point of eating chicken nearly every day lol.
Or we was searching mushrooms in the woods. I had very good talent in finding the most poisening ones, but he always kept them in the basket so I did not feel bad that he did not liked mines. I always got mad at my grandmother, because she was throwing my mushrooms away....

he was the sunshine of my childhood. I miss him so much, even now.

 

Like you, I only knew one of my grandparents. I'm the youngest in my family by many years and by the time I came along, most of my great-grandparents and grandparents had passed away. I lost the only grandparent I knew when I was nine. I was way too young to realize how important she really was.

I envy people who still have their grandparents and I always tell them to take advantage of the history that they have to offer.

Good thread, TS!! :smt023

 

lippy's grandma hazel:

never wore pants...always dresses with shoes and purses to match
she had a dressing table with her makeup, comb/brush, perfume
she wore purple alot
she had a house cat named inky
her house was very formal
she drove a car and would take me into town with her to shop
they lived on a farm in wisconsin but grandpa was involved in the town council or something like that
the farm house had a screened in porch so the mosquitos couldn't get you at night while sitting outside
grandma never sat down to a meal...she tasted her way through dinner in the kitchen

my grandpa always had a cigar in his mouth...even if it wasn't fired up...he used to tell the same stories over and over again...he was a funny man...these were my dad's parents...we spent every summer at their farm when i was a small child...

if i had a little girl her name would have been hazel...now we have a cat named hazel instead

my mother is no longer living so for my son...he has my dad, his grandpa and they have the most wonderful relationship...spencer loves to spend time with his grandpa...

 

I don't remember too much of my grandparents. My mom's mom died when I was 2 months old of pancreatic cancer, and her husband died in 2001 after a long battle with Alzheimer's. He'd been bedridden for 7 or so years by that point, and completely out of his mind for quite a few years before that, so I didn't get to know him too well before he died.

I do remember being his favorite grandkid, though. Before me there were many, at least 15-20 (biiig family) but when I came along my papaw clung to me. Mom says that many nights I wouldn't sleep unless he came over and sat with me until I fell asleep. I would sometimes spend the night with him on Saturdays so that Sunday morning I could go to church with him, and I remember being completely dwarfed by the single seat in his big chevy truck. If I was good and didn't fall asleep at church I'd sometimes get to ride on the back of the truck home, if it was warm enough. That was especially fun when a few of my cousins joined us and we'd all crowd in the truck bed and sing church songs on the way to papaw's house where our moms were busy making Sunday dinner which was always fried chicken, and in the summer sometimes we got peaches, or apples from the trees in papaw's yard, or a big ole' watermelon with seeds that scared the shit out of me because one of my cousins had convinced me if I swallowed one a watermelon would grow in my stomach. I believe this was also the time period in which I expertly decided that that must be what happened to my older cousins whose tummies were growing big with babies. Somehow I knew there were babies in there, but I figured they'd swallowed a watermelon seed to get that way.

My papaw was awesome, but he had a really weird past. Apparently his birth certificate got changed somehow so he ended up enlisting in the army and got shipped off to Europe in WWII when he was 15. My mom was never really sure why this happened, though, because it involved my papaw's step mom who I've been told was an evil bitch like the one from Cinderella. When he came back he worked in the coal mines and started a family, had 10 kids and worked as a volunteer forest fire fighter (because forest fires get really bad in the summer where I'm from. The whole mountain goes up in flames. It's surreal, and quite dangerous) before he got black lung and had to retire. After he died mom ordered a copy of his medals from the war to put with the flag we got at the funeral and we found out that he'd gotten one for saving someone's life. It made me feel good, though we don't know anything about what happened. Mom said he always dodged the "So what was the war like?" questions so no one really knows exactly where he went or what he did.

I was never really close to my dad's parents. They were pretty mean people and when I was 9 some major shit went down and they stopped speaking to me until they both started getting really sick later on when I was a teenager. I remember once my dad's dad tried to teach me some German and Italian because apparently he'd been in both countries during his own service in WWII. He also made rocking chairs. His porch was full of them while I was growing up, and he made them all with hand tools and trees he cut down in the mountains. I used to love watching him make chairs, and I was given one when I was a baby, an itty bitty kid sized rocking chair stained red. Before he died people would come from all over just to get one of his chairs. My grandma just seemed to me like an old Native American woman, though she was only 1/2 or so. She always had black hair, even in her 70s though there was a lot of gray mixed in, and it was down to her knees. She kept it up in a bun during the day, usually covered in some gaudy kerchief, and then at night she wore two long braids. She was small, and dark, and wrinkly. She was in her 60s when I was born so that's how she always looked to me.

 

I have wonderful grandparent memories.

Both of my parents were only children so my two siblings and I had the grandparents all to ourselves. They doted on us and we spent lots of time with each of them, getting their full attention. They taught us unconditional love.

One of my favorite memories was of my mom's mom. She was from a well to do family and she was always trying to make sure my sister and I had culture in our lives. She paid for ballet, French and tennis lessons that my parents couldn't afford. Once we got to be in grade school she let us do more things with her friends. She decided one time we would get to stay and eat lunch with the bridge club ladies instead of being shooed out of the house before they came. We got all cleaned and dressed up and sat right at the table with all the ladies. Not too long into the lunch I looked over at my sister and she looked back at me. I laid out my knife and started lining up peas on it. I balanced the knife up to my mouth with the peas and rolled them in and ate them. My sister laughed and started doing the same. I looked up and all the ladies were looking at us laughing well..............except my granny. Ahhh that was the last we ever got invited for lunch.

 

I was thinking about my mother's parents over the weekend and those are two things that always stood out. I never once saw my grandmother in pants, she thought it was the beginning of the end of gender separation when women started wearing pants.

My grandfather also always had an unlit cigar in his mouth. It was just so a part of who he was.

They were really good people, not just to me, to everyone. The few happy memories I have of my childhood all contain my grandparents. People who say one person can't make a difference in someone's life are wrong, because they did for me. That I managed to become anything other than a parolee is thanks to their presence in my life. They made all the difference in the world, when no one else cared enough to try. I'm thankful that I had the sense to recognize that when they were alive and to let them know what they meant to me, and I think it very unfortunate that my children don't have grandparents that are a positive influence for them.

 

Very rarely do I get emotional but this thread brought out some great memories of my grandmother.
My grandmother was the matriarch of my family. My mother's mother was amazing so generous and full of love. The only unkind thing I can ever remember anyone saying about her was she gave too much of herself and if that's the meanest thing a person can say about you then you've truly lived a life worth following. She wasn't a terribly educated person but she was the most simple minded genius I had ever seen. My grandmother had no more than a GED but found a way to become a millionaire on a nurse's aide salary with three kids. Wow the tears are flowing now. She passed away seven ago but all the memories of our time together are fresh as if they happened yesterday. Thanks for posting this Shawty.

 

The parents of my father died when he was 16 yrs old.

My grandfather from my mothers´side I can just remember cloudy, my mother told me I was his favourite, I came into a very old instrument from him. My grandmother of my mothers´side died two years ago.. the relationship wasn´t good at all, she was the stepmother of my mom and always showed very consequently , who is her son/ daughter and who is not. The last time I´ve met her I told her she can go to her genetic kids and shouldn´t come back to my moms house again.

 

I like this thread!

 

I've been lucky enough to know all my grandparents, and each and everyone were/are special. I have one remaining, she's strong, sarcastic, quick witted and can be downright evil at times...she's 91 this year.

I had 2 grandparents that I just adore, but the main one was my mothers mother. She was like a wild exotic bird who should never be caged. She loved to party and got into so much strife. She ended up having an illegitmate child, left her with my grandfather and their children and ran away to another state. She was hated by the whole family, but I could see her for who she really was, a woman forced into a marriage by a strict religious man who tried to tame her and turn her into someone or something she wasn't. I miss her, her wild stories and her understanding of me.

 

I was not close with my grandparents...... my father parents lived close to me i only remember my grandmother she lived about almost to 100 maybe pass it she was not the type to talk to you much also because she was very old didnt remember much lol
my grandfather die when i was young so i dont remember much
from my mother side i never see them often and while we went for a visit always felt like i was in a stranger house i guess maybe because my mother was never close with her parents as she left home when she was 13 and when came back after few months got married
my grandfather i remember he was a very quiet man ...tall with blue eyes and blonde hair... but i remember him sick also he die very sad as while was sick his daughter die in a car accident after that one and a half year pass then die didnt make it i guess didnt try much
anyway my grandmother was very different short with black hair even when she die still had not even one white hair.. also talk a lot and never show that she was sad you thought that she didnt care at all but on her last days she realy let herself and show her true self that care about everyone

 

Last time I saw my grandpa he was in this bed at the hospital and didn't understand much anymore. he couldn't sleep and wanted to go somewhere (he couldn't wall anymore). I tried to tell him to sleep and I kissed him on the forehead. And after some minutes, he told me "thank you for giving me a kiss". I was so moved. I left early to go see a guy that night and I didn't see my grandpa alive anymore

I look a lot like my grandma. She died when I was 9 months, so I didn0t have the time to know her consciently. People who saw her when she was young and see me now are so impressed. I move the same way my grandma did and I have the same tastes. It's crazy!

 

It´s very, very nice that you had such a good relationship with your grandpa.

 

I had 5 grandparents. Reason being, is cause my fathers mother died before I was born (been told I'm so much like her) and only knew my step-grandmother as my grandmother. All of my grandparents are deceased.

My fathers father - he was nice and used to send me a nice check for my birthday.

His wife: she was sweet and loving. (They both lived back in NY so I didn't get to see them as much as my mothers parents).

My mothers father was the best. He was a beloved and honored man. He was very open-minded, cultured and self taught in many different languages and extremely well-rounded. He used to give me gum. That stood out to me.

My mothers mother was the grandparent I knew the best and was around the most. She was from Turkey (as well as her hubby above) and had a very hard life. Her father was killed in the war and she and her mother had to fend for themselves. That made her tough and strong. She spoke English as a second language and was very cultured and from her, I carry that trait of having culture awareness and pride. She was ignorant (only had a 6th grade education) and only really knew how to run her household (6 kids). She was funny (she used to love watching wrestling) and loving.

Her and my grandpa came to America and made a life for themselves. I admire them cause they overcame adversity and struggle and made it through. They birthed a beautiful and loving family. I miss them.

 

It took me a minute, but I'm gonna add to this...

Once upon a time, I had four gradmothers and two grandfathers (whom I rarely saw, but remember dearly). Now, I have 'two' grandmothers.

My dad came from a big family, and his parents didn't want to raise him, so they sent him (along with some of his other siblings) to live with other relatives. While he saw his parents on occasion, he was raised by his grandfather's cousin (who had passed when my dad was 6 - leaving him to be raised by a single mother). So, my dad was raised by his cousin (who he knew as 'mom'). Thus my dad having his birth mother and his adoptive mother. I would love going over and spend weekends with her as a kid.

My birth mother had died when I was 3, so I never knew her, but I would visit relatives on her side of the family while I was still little, but that brought complications as my dad remarried when I was 5. Her mother would result in me having many grandparents when I was a kid.

Both of my grandfathers are now deceased as two of my grandmothers (my dad's birth and adoptive mothers).