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My Grandad was wounded twice in The Great War. Shot in the head both times and mustard gassed. He rarely talked of it but he did tell me some things. He was starved in the trenches when there were no rations to be had. When he was gassed, he was blind for a while. But most chillingly, he had to fight hand to hand with a German soldier using his bayonet. He was only a teenager but suffered so much as did his fellow soldiers. His health was ruined by his experiences and with hindsight I believe he suffered from PTSD. We owe so much to these young people. I still get tearful thinking of him.

My earliest memory of my grandparents, was when they came to see myself & 3 brothers all in an isolation ward in hospital with chicken pox, as our mother had pneumonia & unable to look after us. I was in a cot, as were my younger twin brothers. My elder brother was obviously better & my grandparents took him home. I was upset & before they left, they gave me a chocolate egg, which I proceeded to eat immediately (I've always loved chocolate). The nurses were furious when they saw the mess I'd made with chocolate everywhere & took the remains of the egg away, which upset me again.
Life soon returned to normal, with grandparents coming every Thursday & Sunday for tea, always with homemade scones & cakes, my favourite being the flapjacks dipped in chocolate.

my grandparents were the best used to spend a lot of my time with them the good old days as I say , hardworking and they could do anything

I remember from a young age being allowed to stay with Nan and Granddad usually Saturday night which was a great treat as my granddad was a farmer and he had a big car and their garden seemed huge with lots of roses, later memories when in my early teens we used to cycle over and quite often stay several nights in the school holidays, I was allowed to cook from the Dairy Cookbook and make the cakes for the week, to this day I still use that book and always remember making coconut buns and forgetting to add the sugar, sadly lost my Nan to a stroke when I was 14, some wonderful memories though.

I was bought up by my grandparents, and they did a wonderful
job of it. they both worked all day, so my sister and I were very self reliant. got off to school and back and even started dinner by the time my nan got home at 5pm. we always had neighbors to go to if needed, but we got along fine.
not sure it would be aloud today.

I remember my Paternal grandparents in the mid-50s. They lived on a farm with no electricity or running water! When we went for tea on a Sunday light was provided by paraffin lamps hung from the low ceiling and we usually had tinned fruit accompanied by bread and butter! I HATED having to eat fruit with bread and butter! But the homemade cakes after were nice.
They had an old fashioned "night-soil" toilet compete with a bucket under a hole in a long wooden seat - complete with newspaper squares on a string for toilet paper! I hated going to the loo after dark as it was halfway down the garden and very creepy!

I have many memories of Mum's parents because we lived with them for 3 years during the war. Dad's parents just around the corner.
My main memories of both are to do with family get-togethers and music. With Aunts, Uncles and many cousins. We had sing-songs around the piano, sometimes leading to dancing - very lively.
Extended families - so many benefits from the sharing and help.
I'm still in touch with those of my cousins who are still around.

I never met my maternal grandfather, as he died before I was born, but my.gran, was a wonderful lady, eorked as a cleaner in Woolworths Manchester for years. My parents ,younger brother and myself lived in my gran's house ,which was a huge Victorian house, with 3floors,an.attic and rooms ,below stairs along with a celler,as did my aunty Maria (mums sister) My gran had 9 grankids, and five children, which would have been six, only Miriam was a cot death. She loved us all, and, on her way home from work, (Manchester Woolworths) she would buy some pick 'n'mix sweets and a comic on a Thursday, which she would give to me. She taught me to knit, and gave me so much love, she was my world, until I was 13, when she passed away, I miss her even now, in my 50s, she will live on, in memory, in my heart and with my memories.

I remember when I was small, I used to go to my Nana and Grandad after school while waiting for my dad to come home from school ( he a school teacher and my mum sadly died when I was younger) we used to play rummy and draughts. Happy days they were. They didn't have much but we were always very loved.

I fondly remember going fishing with the grandfather up to the north of Scotland in the summertime.

I remember going to stay with my grandma and grandad for holidays ,he used to let me help out in greenhouse and garden and gave me a couple of penknives which i still have to this day in my own shed.

I remember being out the front of my grans cottage in Ireland feeding her hens. Afterwards she boiled me one of her eggs and I ate it looking out the kitchen window at the hens that had made it.

I never knew my maternal grandparents as they predeceased me, but my memories of my paternal grandparents are very vivid. My grandfather was a railway signalman for more than 50 years and I visited his signal box as a very small child, awestruck by the long line of levers he operated. We had long walks together, and he was so kind I could tell him anything. My grandmother's story is a tragic one. She was utterly grief stricken by the deaths of two sons in WW2 within weeks of one another. She suffered a nervous breakdown and how was she treated? She was shut away in a lunatic asylum for ten years. I grieve at the injustice of this; it breaks my heart that she did not receive the compassion she deserved for the sacrifice she made. I hope she has found peace in Heaven, reunited with her heroic sons. Rest in peace, granny. X

my gran wasn't very safety conscious. she not once, but twice, set the chip pan on fire. she also tried to boil a crab alive (she was a cockney) and it got her finger and understandably wouldn't let go til my dad poked it in the eye with a fork. she passed out and had a huge knuckle for the rest of her life.....

I always remember my Italian granny with a smile - she was always dancing or singing - even to Dangermouse!

Popping open the flowers buds my Grandad's prize fuchsias.
The flowers then all fell off and he was not happy but he didn't say much.
My Mum said we had to buy him some new plants

All the Grandchildren, with parents, used to visit my Grandmother's every Sunday evening. We had a great time. My Great Aunt Maude would sometimes visit after she had attended church. Gran used to play "pairs" with us, using a pack of cards, didn't have special cards in those days! We would be playing on her large dining table and she would be sitting by the table, having a view out of the window and of the front gate. My memory of doing this always brings a smile when I think of the evenings when Aunt Maude visited - she didn't approve of playing cards especially Sundays - "Devils playthings" she used to say. Gran would see her coming through the gate and say "our Maude's here" and in a flash she would scoop up the cards in her pinafore before Aunt Maude arrived inside [no locked doors then]. Not a card in sight.

I only ever knew my maternal grandmother, who was always 'there' in my childhood days because we lived with her for a few years in a terraced cottage. She was a widow, my grandfather died after serving in Ypres and he was disowned by his father because he married a non-Jew. Gran was the one who was always there, not always sympathetic, but always just to hand to bathe scratched knees in Milton (ouch!), help when I was poorly - I remember the warm salt bags for my really aching ears, especially during measles, and the games of 'cards' we would play. Don't remember her ever doing any housework (probably where I get it from), but I do remember her at the horrible boiler in the kitchen which had to be lit for the regular Monday morning wash, and the lovely steamed puddings she could produce - oh! syrup sponge. We had a large range where she would sit with a friend over a cup of tea, putting the world to rights. She was definitely not the 'grannie in a shawl'. She swore like a trooper could put the fear of God into the coal man, if he caught the wall with his sacks, but would not cross the doorstep if the gypsy had put a curse on it. We would have to go first. Would love to talk to her now about her life, she was obviously very poor, and relied on her daughters in later years. I realise this many years too late, she belonged to a generation of women who were used to the drudgery of bringing up large families on small income, and little help from husbands, and was taken very much for granted.

I only ever knew my mothers father, my granddad and he died when I was 8. He only had one arm (result of a childhood accident) and I remember offering to help him with things around the house because I thought he couldn't manage, he used to let me "help", though I probably got in the way. I wish I had had the opportunity to meet all my grandparents and I hope that my own grandchildren have fond memories of us.

I only knew my maternal grandmother as my other grandparents had passed away before I was born. We lived in the country and only occasionally travelled up to London to visit on a Greenline bus, between that and catching another bus we would pass a lady selling violets and I remember we always bought (in season) a bunch for me to give to Grandma.

1) My Mothers Father would get upset with any family member who did not stand up when the national anthem was being played on the Radio ( Time before TV's )
2) My Mothers Mother, cleaning her front door step to spy on her neighbours.
3) Never meet my Fathers Mother or Father, unfortunately my Dad was a Bastard which was a big thing in those days.

ah the good old days we used to visit grans every week as a family tuesday afternoon was the day of dread, all the adults sat around drinking tea and discussing the week past while us children sat and read a comic, dandy and beano being the pic of choice tho beezer was in there too, if it was a sunny day we would be allowed in the garden to play, not that there was much to play with but the fun we had playing in muck when the adults werent peering from behind the curtains

I had lovely grandparents, & I was lucky enough to have my paternal grandmother living with us from when I was 12 - I used to come home from school to find my favourite chocolate bar on my pillow "to help me with my homework". She was a huge support to us all when my Mum died way too early, and was supportive when I came back home to live when I left my first husband, even though it probably went against what she believed should happen in marriage. She was funny, smart and could walk up the street quicker than me even when in her 80's!

I remember my (recently deceased) Gran drawing hearts with a pencil on Grampy's boiled egg in the morning, she'd forgotten we were staying. she was also the most tolerant person I know, all for sexual equality & equal rights long before they became a "thing"

My maternal Grandad played a big part in my childhood. My mum and I spent every Sunday afternoon with him either playing cards or board games (in the winter) or off on 'jaunts' in the countryside (in the summer). I remember him riding my first 'proper' bicycle; he would have been in his 80s by then! He never drove, owned a fridge or had a telephone. He finally acquired a tv in his late 80s (only because my mum bought it for him) and I'm sure he only ever watched horse-racing on it! He never had a bank account and after he died my mum discovered hundreds of pounds in cash hidden between plates in the cupboard! He was a truly wonderful man and one of my greatest regrets is that he never got to know my 4 children as he sadly died (aged 93) when my eldest was a baby.