What were your grandparents like?

Mums parents were very hard working. Granny was a carpet weaver at Templetons in Glasgow, grandad fought at Dunkirk, then went into the cleansing department, local government.
They came from Govan hill- both would be turning in their graves with the state of the place now.
My dad’s mum died from TB aged 23, grandad remarried a woman that was the spit of Wallace Simpson, right down to the twin sets & pearls. She owned a fish mongers in Glasgow. Grandad was a stoker at the gas board, he died of a heart attack when he was 61.

Paternal GPs lived on the other side of the country. He had been an engine driver and made me a bow and arrow, she was always dusting. Maternal grandfather died before I was born. Maternal GM was great; DM and I lived with her for a while after my parents split up.

Paternal grandpa was only interested in my sister and would give her anything she wanted. Grandma, however was a lovely warm kind woman who had far more time for me than my own parents - I loved visiting. She had a pot of tea permanently on the stove and one of those floral wrapover aprons.

Maternal grandma was a completely different. Widowed at 40, she worked and raised 5 children alone, marrying again and nursing no 2 until he died when I was a toddler, and marrying again at 75. She was tiny, pretty and lively, and a very sociable flirt and DH no 3 was a gentle quiet man who adored her. She had a stroke in her 80s and he visited her in hospital and sat with her all day, every day until she died, and he died three days later.

Only knew my grandmas. Both grandads died before my birth, paternal grandad died in WW1 leaving a pregnant wife, maternal grandad died of TB 4 years before I was born and nanna moved in with my parents and lived with them until her death when I was 25. We used to watch Edwardian Music Hall together on tv and I still know the words to a lot of the songs.

My paternal grandma lived with her dad after my dad’s birth, two months after her husband’s death at sea. From about 5years old I used to be allowed to stay overnight at her house. There was only one cold water tap serving the house and that was in the back yard. Grandma would heat up water in a big kettle that hung over her open fire and bring a jug-full up to my bedroom, pour it into a big bowl so I could get washed. The only toilet was also in the washhouse in the back yard and bottoms were wiped with torn squares of newspaper.
I loved both my grandmas very much.

My mam’s dad had died back in 1943. He mourned the loss of his youngest son in WWII. Mam’s mam died in 1960 aged 87 and I can only remember her as being bed ridden and living with us. Poor mam and dad had a lot of work to do to look after her. Mam had to give up her job as a nurse.

My dad’s dad was a horrible man and never nice with me. He was a thug in his youth and no one knew what gran saw in him. He died of old age in his eighties.
Dad’s mam was a lovely little lady who I adored and she outlived grandad (good) and lived into her Nineties. The downside was they lived over 200 miles away and I only got to see gran when they visited once per year.

I have vague memories of my maternal grandmother pushing me in a seat on a pram. She was a pianist and played in pubs regularly. She died when a drunken driver hit her on a zebra crossing just before Xmas when I was 2.
My maternal grandfather was in the Royal Navy. When he retired he used to mend watches and clocks as a hobby sideline. Table was always covered in clock parts. He used to carry me on his shoulders to the shop and buy me 5Boys chocolate.
My paternal French grandfather died in 1939 from dropsy, I think it's heart failure now. It was caused by gas in the trenches. I never met him.
I lived with my French grandmother for most of my childhood. She wasn't very loving towards me and was very mean and stingy, despite being wealthy. She came from a very poor family and was totally illiterate. She used to secretly gift money to her friends who were poor, leaving cash in drawers when we visited.

I was often taken to see Nana and Bompa when I was little. They lived in walking distance and whilst mum talked to Nana I enjoyed watching TV and nattering to Bompa. They had a dog - bull terrier - I used to cuddle up to who was very gentle with me. Sometimes I stayed with my grandparents and went out shopping with Nana. She ran a small bed and breakfast in the summer and as I got older I helped with the laundry with a 'dolly tub' which I quite enjoyed. Poor Bompa had to live in a sort of outbuilding in the yard [the garden was small] at night sometimes if the bedrooms were full! When we moved house Nana moved to a flat nearby after Bompa died and when my parents moved again she had a small cottage again nearby. Nana was an excellent seamstress and made many of my performance costumes as she used to do with my mum. She was kind but firm. We argued a bit but overall we got on well and I miss them both.

Both my maternal grandparents were very radical, and so I imbibed their politics from a young child.

My grandmother was a feminist and I can remember her talking about Rathbone and Fawcett. She had contact with Quakers, but I was never taken to their meetings.

Grandad introduced me to left wing politics and the founding fathers - sat at the dining table on a Sunday afternoon after lunch.

As I got older there were huge debates which I loved.

I also got my love of gardening from my maternal grandfather, this has never left me and I realised that I had learned so much from him. I do have his gardening book, printed in the 1920s which I still refer to.

My paternal grandparents both died before I knew them, which is sad. It does seem that my paternal grandfather was very aspirational for my father, and he paid both for his education and apprenticeship, which given the fact that he was an employee of Delabole Slate Quarry and a splitter meant that he must have had to go without to help my father.

My maternal grandmother of whom I look most alike died young from heart failure.

I think that only my maternal grandma was alive by the time I was born .
Her husband was killed before the birth of my mother .
My grand mother was a very kind ,deeply religious country woman . She could be very funny . She was very highly principled and didn't suffer fools gladly .
Grandma wasn't very good at housekeeping,but a superb cook .
She was horrified by the events of World War 1 and 2 .
She'd be really shocked by life today and appalled at continuing wars .
I know that she'd say that Revelations had come to pass .
I think that it has .

My maternal grandma was a lovely lady. Always dressed well and tied up her white hair into a roll around her head. I didn’t know her for long, but the impression I have of her is very gentle and loving. I used to spend hours playing house in her little shed. I can remember the smell of it now.
My paternal Nana terrified me. She was a big woman, and had had her leg amputated due to diabetes. I would see her covered stump and false leg and was horrified! She had no time for children, and always sent us into her garden to play.

My paternal grandparents lived on our street. My grandfather was lovely but my grandmother was mean!!

My maternal grandfather died When my mother was young, but my grandmother was wonderful

@butterandjam.
I so enjoyed reading your posting, part of which I have posted below. It had me smiling all the way through. Thank you so much.

"My maternal grandmother was a gypsy ( the term she used) and had healing powers; before the NHS she delivered all the local babies (rural area) and locals came to her to be dosed up with herbs. The only thing she ever dosed me with was what she described as "elderberry pop" which caused me and some rowdy cousins to fall asleep for several hours in the middle of the day.. I think we'd exhausted her patience.

She was a very beautiful woman and my mother looked just like her. GF married GM just before he set off to fight in WW1. A year or so later he returned from France, injured, and found Granny heavily pregnant. She called it a mystery pregnancy, known to midwives. He agreed to keep the mystery and raise it, on condition she pretended it was his child,. Which they did by waiting nine months to register the (home) birth of a "newborn" with him as father. Only by then she was pregnant again so they had to fake the second child's birth registration too. That's how two of my aunts spent their entire lives a year older than their birth certificates. They had seven children".
.....etc..

I remember thinking it was rather odd that my maternal G’ma called her friends Mrs so and so, not their first names. It seemed formal to me but they all did the same.

My paternal G’ma was deeply offended when a cousin called her by her first name one day and refused to speak to her again.

My maternal Gpop was a sweetie, scrupulously fair and quite strict but taught me to play draughts with endless patience. He loved a good pun.

I didn’t know my paternal G’pa. He was a horse hair curler at one stage and then an administrator in the post office. Horse hair was curled before being used to stuff sofas to make them springy.

My paternal grandfather died when I was 3,but apparently he loved taking me out in my pram. Little Nana came to live with us when he died and looked after us while Mum worked in the shop. Fried leftover mash for lunch every day during the week! She was very fierce and would jab us in the chest to make a point. She died when I was about 16. Mum’s parents lived up the road and we quite often stayed with them overnight. Big Nana made the best teacakes and wouldn’t tell anyone the recipe. Grandad was very quiet and was still riding his bike to do the gardens at a hotel right up until his late 70s. He died when I was on holiday in the Isle of Man with my sister and some friends. I was 18. Then Nana came to live with us. She never made her teacakes again. She was a thorn in my mother’s side! Even her clearing her throat got on her wick. She died when she was 84.

My maternal grandmother died when my mother was only 3. My maternal grandfather died 6 months before I was born. My paternal grandparents had other grandchildren, my cousins, they always seemed to favour. I had no contact with them when my parents divorced. There was a lovely elderly lady who lived opposite to us when I had 2 young children and I thought she would have been a lovely grandmother. She didn

I do remember 2 GMs a 1 GD all very old all had died before I was 7, everyone is old at that age they were all around 70 quite good for the times.

Pantglas2

Kind, wise, hospitable, resourceful and hard working til they died in their early 80s.

I learned/absorbed many lessons from my early years with them and so wish I’d appreciated them more instead of being the self centred teenager that I was…

I second this !

I’ve a feeling I’ve written about my grandparents before! But here goes.

Dad’s dad died in his early 30s during the Second World War in Baghdad from malaria. Dad’s mum was only 20 when Dad was born - my grandfather was 18. Nanny was great and until dad’s two sisters had children I spent a lot of time with her. Nanny remarried when dad was 14 and I also considered Poppop my grandfather - I think he was my godfather too. My daughter and elder son share Nanny’s birthday.

Mum’s parents were a different kettle of fish. Her father was 60 when she was born and died just before I was born. We only saw Nanna once a year as she lived hundreds of miles away. She had umpteen grandchildren and I was just another one!

We saw Dad’s parents nearly every week as they only lived a few miles away. Nanny died when m my daughter was a baby but at least she saw her a couple times. Poppop died when my youngest was two, they all loved him.

My Nana and Grandad from Kingston were lovely and Grandad inherited a lot of money and business in 1930 and major Ww1 and Major for Homegaurd WE2 and went to Dunkirk D day .Jarrow grandad walked from Jarrow to London 1930 and settled in Kingston then owned roofing company for steelworks post war in Scunthorpe . My dad’s mother called herself Auntie very glam and was an accountant at the Dorchester Hotel and owned her own tea shop in Kingston on Thames and second marriage to a German Jew from Berlin 22 yrs younger than her and he always said he was Austrian . All of them were special and even knew 2 great parents who died when I was 13 they aged 93 . I was lucky 🍀!

Had no knowledge of either Grandparents on either linear line .. what does astonish me is the complete disregard to my feelings and they never told me about my Grandma or Grandpa .. I have one picture of a forbidding older lady in Black ,,, Thats it ...

Both grandfathers died young, one grandmother was trapped behind the iron curtain in Europe and died when I was about 8. I didn’t know her but my mum told me stories about her.

I knew my English nanny who was already about 70 when I was born. She never bought me anything or took me anywhere except occasionally grocery shopping, but she was always kind to me and I felt safe and happy in her house.

A great thread, fascinating history. Thanks Magenta8.

My paternal grandparents had died, but I knew my maternal grandparents. They were both doctors, but had divorced when my mother was about 8 or 9. Grandfather had married his glamorous secretary. They were both unloved by their elder daughter, my mother. "Auntie" as the step-grandmother was called, lived until she was 90, still slim and upright, still wore her expensive 1930s clothes and a blonde wig. But she never gave anything away. After grandfather died, my mother had to persuade her to give his watch to her brother, my uncle.
Grandmother was quite different, also unlike other grannies, a psychiatrist who wore patchwork skirts and boots and had straggly grey hair. She tried to teach me to play chess when I was about 7 but obviously found me rather stupid.
(My mother, by contrast, was a wonderful mother and grandmother, daily missed.)

I am enjoying reading about everyone's GPs. It is sad that some of us never got to meet all our GPs. I was lucky in that I lived in the same house where my grandmother had a granny flat and I saw my other grandmother regularly.

I didn’t know my maternal grandmother very well and I never met my maternal grandfather. My paternal grandparents brought me up. Grandad died when I was eight. I was devastated. Without telling a long story, I thought he died because of me. Which was a lot of guilt for a child to bear. After that it was just me and my nanny. She thought me how to shop. How to choose meat, vegetables etc. then rarely left the house. Looking back she was agoraphobic but I didn’t know that at the time. She became very dependent on me emotionally which wasn’t good for either of us. But I still adored her. She developed dementia in her 70’s sadly. She stopped talking until. Her death bed when she thought my daughter was me and told her she loved her. Despite losing her so long ago I still miss her.