Favourite memories with your grandparents

My maternal grandparents lived in Ireland and had about 35 grandchildren but they made a big fuss of me when we met which was very rarely. As a teenager though my Granny used to write lovely letters to me.

I never knew who my paternal Grandfather was but my Grandmother was a nasty, selfish woman who took no interest in any of her grandchildren. I do remember she had a teapot shaped like a cottage and she kept a bit of change in there. Once she gave me a threepenny bit coin from there …. Just once.

I spent most of my childhood living abroad, so only visited my grandparents occasionally. Close to where they lived was a garden with gnomes, little bridges and waterfalls. I could stand for hours just looking at it.
Also, a trip to the local fish and chip shop, something I had never encountered before. The family lived in Hull, and not only was there a choice of fish, but it was all fresh off the docks.
My grandmother had a budgie which spoke nursery rhymes and took food out of her mouth.

Grammaretto

I only knew one. She was my dad's mum and lived in New Zealand. I lived there too until I was 10. My dad died when I was 5 so both she and my mum were grieving.

Born in 1882, she lived beside the sea in the South Island and I remember staying with her for weeks on end.
She taught us how to cook and to do household tasks. We went to the local school and played with the local children.

She liked womens' magazines and knitting. She painted pictures. She knew most people in the town who were probably related to us!

She was kind to us children but never indulged us. She could be stern if we were quarrelling. She and my mother did not get along well but I don't think I was aware of that at the time.

I loved when she brought out photos of her sisters who had died and told me about them and of her mother's voyage on a sailing ship from England to NZ in 1866.

My last memory is waving a handkerchief from the ship to those on the wharf as we sailed away to England. She died a couple of years after we had left. She must have been 80.

She had another son nearby who was a farmer and his children, my cousins, were much closer to her.

teabagwoman
What wonderful memories of your Grandmother, I hope one day that my GC will have some nice memories to remember me by 🙏
OP
I have many memories of my own , I was close to my Maternal GP’s . As I lived with them during my formative years & called my GM ‘Mum’ as I heard my Uncles & Aunts do .
My GP’s emigrated to NZ when I was 16 in 1969 - I was devastated but continued to be in constant contact with them .
As I was also the eldest GC I was somewhat spoilt .
Jumble Sales, Bingo & Gardening were my GM’s thing 🧡

I was so lucky to have 4 grandparents living nearby when growing up. We didn’t have a tv initially so I would go to my grandparents to watch Andy Pandy and the Woodentops. Extended family holidays at caravan parks. Lots of fun and laughter. I remember helping grandad in his allotment and helping Nan make cakes. My other grandad picking me up from school and nanna taking me in for a cream tea as a treat.
Grandad died when I was 17 but all my other 3 grandparents came to my wedding and met my eldest son. My Nan died when I was 41 and is remembered with affection by all her great grandchildren too.

I absolutely adored my maternal grandparents. I was 25 when my grandad died & 39 when my Nana died. I miss them so much & feel blessed to have had them in my life. My Nana lived to experience the joys of being a great-granny & she showered my children with the same love & affection. My paternal grandparents were not in my life to the same extent but still loved & remembered with affection.

These are so lovely. I only had one grandfather rest of the grandparents were .RIP.

I loved him and felt very secure in his house

I wish the ladies on mumsnet would read this post as so many go NC for the flimsiest reasons, thus denying their own children of many joys. I realise some NC are for good reasons.

I was very lucky to have all of my grandparents until well into adulthood, and I even still had all of my great-grandparents when I was young, although my maternal GGF passed away when I was a baby, so I don't remember him.

I have the happiest memories of all of my GPs, each in their own way, they were all very special to me. Day trips out with my paternal GM & my mum, either to the countryside for picnics, or on a coach trip to the seaside. As well as holidays with both GM & GF. And many sleepovers, which I loved!

Maternal GM used to let me get away with anything and everything, so I loved spending time with her! She was such a lovely, cuddly person. She spent a lot of time cooking & baking, and always let me 'help' with it. She used to let me do her hair, with rollers and clips, and she'd get down on the floor 'exercising' with me!

Both of my GFs were lovely too, so very patient and caring, and always made me feel very loved.

I still miss them so much. They were all a very hard act to follow. If I can be half as good a grandparent as they were to me, to my own grandchildren, I think I will have done pretty good job!

My mother’s father died just before I was born. He was 25 years older than her mum who was in her late 30s when she had mum. She lived several hundred miles away so we only saw her once a year. I found her difficult to understand as her accent was very northern. My father’s parents (mother and stepfather - his father had died of malaria in Iraq during the war) only lived about 5 miles away. We saw them most Sundays and they always came for Christmas and my birthday. I stayed with them for a week every summer until I was around 10. Dad’s two sisters started having children and we were aware that they took precedence! My two elder children were born on their great grandmother’s birthday. Sadly she only got to see my daughter as she died at the age of only 72. My step grandfather was lovely. He knew all my children and died when my youngest was 2. He had a large orchard which we used to love to run around in. We were only bc allowed to pick up windfall apples to eat as he sold the best fruit to the greengrocer. He also had the most amazing she’d full of treasures. One machine, which he had built himself, polished pebbles which he then made into jewellery. Those were the days.

I have such lovely lovely memories of my Granny and Grampa, (maternal) and my Grandma, (paternal). My mum and I lived with her parents and I was the first and only grandchild for almost 5 years. We lived with my mums parents from age 3 to when my mum remarried my lovely adopted Dad when I was 6 years old. His dear Mother was so lovely and just treated me from the get go as another grandchild, I have lovely memories of playing with my new cousins in her lovely huge garden and staying overnight. Sadly for us all she passed away very suddenly whilst I was still in primary school from a huge stroke.

My other grandparents passed away within 1 year of each other when I was 15.

I missed them and loved them all enormously.

I was 8 years old when my mam’s mam died so I never really knew her. She lived with us because of her dementia and it was hard on mam and dad. My dad’s parents lived over 200 miles away and I only saw then once per year when we visited. Never had a close relationship. I don’t see my 4 grand kids as often as I would like. I am estranged from my daughter for the past 9 plus years and only see her two beautiful daughters through their dad, her ex. My son’s 2 kids are always too busy. Life is hard.

My maternal grandfather died before I was born. He sired 11 children then died and left poor granny to bring them up. She was lovely with coiled up black hair secured with combs. She was blind but knitted all the time, even mixed colours which we threaded for her in orange beehive shaped wool holders. She died when I was 6.

Paternal grandparents were around until I was in my mid twenties. Granddad was a morose man, having fought in the Somme and was never the same not surprisingly. He was a carter taking pottery and Burton’s beer from the Grand Union Canal barges at Camden lock. He housed his horse and cart in the stables there, now part of the trendy market. Granny was a real character, a true North Londoner with that clipped fast way of speaking. She worked as a post woman in WW1 but lost her job when the men returned so worked in the rag trade in Fitzrovia thereafter. She refused to use the underground so went everywhere by bus from her home in Chalk Farm. She used to take me to all the junk shops (now arty antique emporiums) on the bridge over the canal. Her bedroom had a vast mahogany chest of drawers where she kept her ‘treasures’. These were bits of jewelry, silks, all sorts. I have her collection of hat pins with pearl, amethyst and gold tops. She and my mother did not get on but I adored her. When I went to live in Africa she told the world I lived in Rosydesha - she was a real Mrs Malaprop.

I knew all my grandparents, though have only vague memories of my paternal grandfather - very tall, very strict - because he died when I was six. His wife, my grann, I remember well. She was Irish, white haired and a little bit scary. I didn’t feel very close to her. Although they lived fairly near we didn’t see them very often. My father did not get on very well with his parents, who had been furious when he got married instead of looking after them as they aged.

My mother’s parents I remember very well. We often went to stay with them in Knott End-on-Sea, where they had retired. To me and my brother it was a magical place. Grandma made wonderful suet puddings stuffed with plums. Later when she developed cancer she and my grandfather came to live with us.I was about 8 when they came, 14 when my grandfather died. He had been head of a Church of England school, and was a fine tenor singer. I also loved to sing around the house, and he called me “the Upton nightingale”. My most appreciative audience ever!

I had both my nans, but my maternal nan I really loved.

She lived 6 doors away, next to my godparents, and I always felt she was a bit of a rebel.

She was very funny, and quite glamorous, and I used to love staying the night with her.

My mother's parents lived 3 storeys up in a building in Willesden, opposite the Spotted Dog pub. Mum would drop my brother and I off there and go to work. We'd walked up some very dark stairs to the front door. Once inside we walked passed the 'posh' room, where only visitors were allowed to go. Then up again to the bathroom and scullery/kitchen. In the scullery there was a rubbish chute and we would drop bottles etc down it and listen to them clang their way down to the bins at the back of the building. In the posh room there was a wind up gramophone on which we used to play old 78s. We'd spend hours doing this. Fondly remembered place now all knocked down and part of a supermarket car park.

Really Kate1949? I would be so curious.
It was my lack of knowledge about some of my forebears that set me off on a lifelong interest in Genealogy.

I maybe didn't meet them but I can admire their courage and fortitude.
My Irish grandfather in particular.

Romping through the sand dunes collecting dewberries so Gran could make dewberry pie and custard. My grandparent's house was the only place I ever had dewberry pie.

I never met any of mine. They were in Ireland. I have no idea of their names.

I really should preview my messages. Should read 'Hardly knew my paternal grandmother '

I hardly knew my maternal grandmother, but my maternal grandma lived in the same town, just a bike-ride away. I usually went to the library on a Sat morning, and then onto Grandma's house, which always had a small of something cooking! She was quite diminutive, but quite agile, and I always remember her demonstrating how she could touch her toes, well into her 90s! No one knew exactly how old she was, as she has been a refugee from Lithuania and her birth certificate got lost en route.
In her latter years, she came to live with us. She was never a great conversationalist, but was very placid and never raised her voice or lost her temper.

I only knew my maternal grandmother - we called her ‘blind Nana’ for obvious reasons. She used to cup our faces in her hands and trace our faces with her fingers. Never got to know why she was blind. Untreated cataracts probably, not hereditary , I’m sure, bgg.

I knew all of mine and the first grandparent to die was when I was 8 and the next one when I was 20. I consider myself very lucky to have had them and to have been the recipient of their love and kindness. I miss them still. I can also vaguely remember one set of great-grandparents who both died when I was around 4 or 5 years of age. My grandparents helped to make my childhood very special.

My English GM died when I was 4, so I only have vague memories of her. My Irish GM died when my father was 3, so I didn't ever get to meet her. I loved my English GF- loved to listen to his stories of life in the RFC and RAF. He died quite young as well - only 74. I really miss him still.

Unfortunately I hardly ever saw any of them. Maybe a total of a dozen times over the years and not for long. Mostly I remember my Dad’s mother. She was kind and would give me a cuddle but my Mum fell out with her so that was that.

My memories are mainly tastes and smells in my grandparents houses.
Maternal gp’s garden with the taste of the raspberries they grew. Jars and jars of marmalade being made and rock cakes baked. The house was quite dark and I didn’t like staying overnight. Scary! Going with grandma to get her pension and her buying me sweets and a comic. Grandad died when I was 7 but I remember sitting on his lap trying to draw with a trick rubber pencil.

Paternal gp’s were so kind and loving. The smell of her dinner cooking, grandads pipe tobacco and the smell of a stack of newspapers in the’lean-to’ sitting in the sun.
I liked staying with them because my cousins lived nearby. When I was poorly, I slept in their bedroom with a coal fire alight - so cosy, warm and safe.
Lovely memories

Granniesunite

My maternal gran was very talented and I remember long relaxing days sewing baking cooking with her as her favourite music filled her home. She was very religious and once gave me meat on a Friday. As that was a fast day then she was devastated at this very simple mistake. I’ve never forgotten her reaction to that. My grandad loved animals and I can remember him always being busy outside in the back garden feeding the birds.

My paternal grandparents were very quiet. I remember going to their home and as I was climbing the stairs to their flat I can remember the feeling of pure joy at the thought of seeing them. .
We’d sit at the fire reading. Gran her people’s friends magazine grandad his paper and me a book that they’d looked out for me. I can still smell the coal from the fire hear it crackling and if I close my eyes I can see the layout of that small room and feel the peace. Very simple pleasure that to this day are my favourite pastimes.

What a beautiful thread.

Thats a lovely memory.