Among Friends

[1Snickers]

 I lived in a village and my paternal grandmama lived in the other side of our duplex. We had a long front screened porch and I could go next door often. 
  She was a bookkeeper for a department store downtown and we met her for lunch occasionally. 
  She told the best stories and sweet stuffed animals to go with them! She was born in 1900 and died at 60, from asthma and heart trouble. 
  My maternal grandmother was a great cook! She lived two blocks away so I could visit easily. She made Christmas dinner every year. 
   She was a practical nurse and would catch the bus in front of my house to go to the hospital.I recall her white starched uniforms and hat, a blue cape in winter. 
    She did lovely hand work and made tatting, crocheted, made tablecloths and quilts. She died at 89 from a stroke. 
     Both grandfathers passed away when I was two.

[1Snickers]

@hckynut How sad for you not to have had a loving grandmother. But your mother was so kind to visit her in the hospital! 

[froggy]

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@SeaMaiden wrote:

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@froggy wrote:

I was never close to either set of grandparents as all either of my parents wanted to do was get away from their home towns and never go back. All 4 of my grandparents were dead by the time they were my current age.

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@froggy   I had a similar growing up... it was just my Mom and Dad And my two sisters....no cousins, aunts....Uncles... Grand parents....we just grew up never seeing "other family" at all. 

interesting that  today I too have no relationship  with my two sisters ... and no outside Family.  That is how I grew up...what I learned. It seems normal to me.

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@SeaMaiden  Yep. I have 5 siblings but I am 7 years older than the oldest of them and I had left home before they were even in high school, So I am not close to them either. I don't know any of my nieces or nephews. The idea of large, close families living in one another's pockets makes me shudder. I guess you don't miss what you have never known.

[Sooner]

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@ECBG wrote:

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@Sooner wrote:

One was taking care of her family in a shack out on a farm and looking to move into a house in town. She did housework, cooked and I don't know what else.  She was gone before I was born.  I have a pair of her shoes.  

The other one was a widow, raising a garden, and being badgered by her kids to move out of a shack in the country into a small town.  She drew water from a well, kept a big garden, gathered eggs and killed chickens.  She sometimes did day labor on surrounding farms, but was about not able to do that any longer. 

Shacks seem to be the common theme with my ancestors. 

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@Sooner Apparently, that was your grandmother's passion.  How wonderful!

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 No, it's just what you do when you are poor in dirt poor Oklahoma back in the day.  I went to school with kids that didn't have running water in the 1960s.  

[AuntG]

One would have been cleaning, cooking, helping with farm chores like butchering chickens. A hard working lady.

I think the other one was kind of nutty and a hoarder. She'd probably be picking berries in her woods and going to rummage sales during summer.

[SeaMaiden]

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@froggy wrote:

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@SeaMaiden wrote:

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@froggy wrote:

I was never close to either set of grandparents as all either of my parents wanted to do was get away from their home towns and never go back. All 4 of my grandparents were dead by the time they were my current age.

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@froggy   I had a similar growing up... it was just my Mom and Dad And my two sisters....no cousins, aunts....Uncles... Grand parents....we just grew up never seeing "other family" at all. 

interesting that  today I too have no relationship  with my two sisters ... and no outside Family.  That is how I grew up...what I learned. It seems normal to me.

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@SeaMaiden  Yep. I have 5 siblings but I am 7 years older than the oldest of them and I had left home before they were even in high school, So I am not close to them either. I don't know any of my nieces or nephews. The idea of large, close families living in one another's pockets makes me shudder. I guess you don't miss what you have never known.

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@froggy   I sometimes think I must be weird or odd...maybe not...?

[Desert Lily]

I was close to my maternal grandmother and loved her very much. Growing up, I spent more than half my weekends at my G & G's house, and we had family dinners there every Sunday. The year I graduated from high school, my grandfather died of a heart attack. I graduated at a young age, was too young to drive, & wasn't ready to live in a dorm, so I moved in with her when I was in college.

My grandmother went back to college in her early 40's and retired from being an office manager this same year. My mom was busy with our new family business. My grandma taught me how to bake, cook, and sew a little. She looked out for me, cooking, baking, sewing almost all of my clothes, knitting sweaters & afghans for me, etc. But it wasn't until I left that I realized we held each other up; she sobbed the day I moved out. I think of her often and I think if she were alive and my same age, I'd want to be good friends with her.

[denisemb]

I am 67.  My maternal grandmother had 12 children so I hope she was SLEEPING a lot at my age.

[deeva]

Neither of my grandmothers made it to my age. 

[jeanlake]

Love your stories.

Paternal grandmother died at age 33 with 9th child. Child survived. Dad was 3. Lovely stories told of her sweet spirit. NC mountain near Bryson City.

Maternal grandmother worked at a care facility and loved working. When grandfather became ill and had to leave the mill, grandmother quit work to care for him. She didn't drive. She was an all-star porch sitter and waver. Proud to own her cottage in an equestrian, golf, retirement community in NC Appalachian foothills. Not a great cook or housekeeper; just the basics. Her smiles and giggles were priceless. She was a 'bless their hearts' kind of a woman. Loved her community. If elderly didn't call in before 9 AM, the sherrif dropped by. People stopped by to take her to the store or would get her order and she'd have a check waiting for them. She kept grandfather's car, but never drove. I observed how my mom and grandmother were dear friends. It taught me how to relate to my adult daughters. Priceless were the summer visits to her simple cottage and quaint town.