Your lovely dgm..

[Maydaysoonenough]

Tell me something lovely you remember about your dgm!!
Mine would have been 98 today!! Sadly she died in 1999.
She always had time for me and my dc.. Never tired or crabby!! Always a home baked treat available! And a Sunday roast!
And 27 perfect Christmases she gave us!
Sadly missed.

My GM would be 96 this year. She was amazing. Really young at heart. Flying abroad on her holidays alone in her late 80's after my GD died after 66 years of marriage.
She loved rollercoasters. And travelling. And even on her death bed remained bitter she'd 'never got to China'.

And I have to say I had her until I was 44. So lucky.

My Nanny died in 1999. She liked to be dressed nicely and have her hair done. She had a big oak dresser in her house that had toys and children's books in the bottom that we loved rummaging through. When she died I kept the dresser. She told me once that my cousin's pet rabbit died in front of her so she gave it a nip of brandy and it jumped back to life and ran round the garden a few times before dying again. No idea if that's true. I don't know much about her life but my dad tells me some bits.

My Grandma is 93 and still going strong. She whizzes round town on her mobility scooter, knits jumpers and socks for the Great Grandkids, does puzzles and crosswords. Even during covid she was out doing her shopping every few days.

My gran also died in 1999, a couple of days before the millennium. She would have been 101 this January. I was 15 when she died and wish so much I could have known her better. I remember wanting desperately to live with her as I didn't have a happy upbringing. She was what you expect a grandma to be - loving, warm, comforting and always with a biscuit tin to offer treats from.
I've only just had children and feel they won't have this lovely experience of a grandma. My own mum was cold, distant and abusive, however she's great with my kids. She's not very involved though. My DP's mum has seen the kids once since they were born.

I find it very sad that despite my grandparents and great grandparents having very happy marriages and giving their kids happy upbringings, that hasn't happened for me and my brother. We both have failed marriages behind us and shitty childhoods.

Meant to say my other Grandma died when I was 3, but from some of the thing I've been told, I think I really take after her. She worked in a pub 6 nights a week, she was brilliant at her job and was offered he chance to be a landlady but my Grandad said no. She worked hard (dont think I could have worked as hard as her). She loved markets and going out to John Lewis in Liverpool for a cup of tea. These are all things I've been old, I've got a couple of sketchy memories of her, one of which is going to visit her in hospital before she died. I remember her sitting on a chair by her bed and saying she wanted to come home. I also remember the pink and white bedspread, its weird. It would have been great to have known her as an older child/teenager.

What a lovely thread
My lovely Gran died last month at the age of 99. She was the best Gran in the world and i miss her so much. She was a waaf in the war and left to get married to my Grandad. She was a fantastic cook and loved all of us so much. I was heartbroken when she died and i have very fond memories of her.

My (maternal) Nan died recently. I can't believe she's gone (she died from Covid, after dodging it for two years). She was 93.

She was a fantastic gardener. Her garden was like something out of Chelsea Flower
Show. My grandad was obsessed with lawns and would mow it every day. She loved sitting in the garden and watching the birds. My sister and I would go to church with her on Sunday and she would always remind us to 'tuck your best into your knickers' because the church was freezing. She always looked amazing. Hair always done, make up and jewellery. She introduced me to perfume. Even when she died in hospital she had earrings in and had refused to remove her rings.

My (paternal) grandma was your classic old lady - round with white hair. She was tough as old boots, used to terrify us as children by saying she expected another World War before she died. She had dozens of tinned food in case war was announced. My dad told me she had buried money in the garden too. She had a bottle of sherry shoved down the sofa and used to sip some of it whilst watching Neighbours, her favourite soap.

She was great fun, allowing us to camp in her garden and after my grandad died she travelled the world, doing hang gliding and abseiling amongst other typically non granny adventures.

I was lucky to know them both for as long as I did. I always think of my Nan when I see a particular colour or blue tits and wagtails. I think of grandma whenever there is an extreme granny on TV or I cook an egg sandwich. She loved egg sarnies.

So kind, generous and patient, she died over 20 years ago and sadly had dementia for the last few years but before she was ill I would spend lots of time with her. I would spend a week every school holiday with her (&DGF) and have the most wonderful indulged time. I can remember the shopping trips to Kensington Market, Biba etc in the 1970s (anyone else remember Biba?). I am the same age now as she was then and can imagine nothing worse than trailing round the shops with a teenager!

Oh I love this thread. It's making me cry, but in a lovely way.

My Grandmother was amazing. She grew up in poverty, worked her arse off her whole life, suffered pain and loss and tragedy. None of that made her bitter. She was kind and caring and loving.

She ran her own business when it was very much not the norm for women to do so. She had a wicked sense of humour. She was so sharp, so funny.

She baked amazing bread, and made the most delicious soup I've ever had.

She loved a laugh, a whisky, and a cigarette. We had so many of those together.

She was my North Star. Always provided me with support and guidance.

She loved me so dearly and unconditionally. She was very stern but never raised her voice at me. I always felt so very loved with her.

I was so, so, so very lucky.

She was nice i think but lived too far away so we never had the sunday lunches or lovely xmases. She always bought me a box of toffiffee for xmas from the cheap shop and worried it wasnt enough.. I lived them so buy it myself now shes gone.

Other one was my abusive dads mum. She was ok too but we never received gifts from her as too many grandchildren.

My stepdads mum is nice and knits so much for my DD. She always includes us as her grand and great grandchildren. Lives too far away but i grew up opposite her so am closer to her than i was any of the others. Not close enough to phone etc. though.

My Grannie was the kindest, most gentle lady I ever knew, and never said a rude or angry word about anything or anyone, other than two male in-laws who she considered not good enough for her daughter and granddaughter (she was right about both). She had three sisters, none of them was more than five feet tall, and those tiny women ran the entire extended family without ever raising their voices.
Two things she said to me:
”I loved my children very much, but I always had to have a book in the other hand while they were babies, or I’d have been bored to tears”
” I don’t recommend living to 88, but what can you do”

My maternal grandmother was an absolutely incredible yo-yo er. She'd spent a huge amount of her life in hospital or having to be laid flat due to congenital bone issues, and it was something she had time to do. She could knit beautifully too, but the yo yo tricks were my favourite.
My paternal grandmother had a lot of issues, but she did have the best shoe collection I ever saw. She had size 3 feet and always bought them in the sale, so there was a huge pile of shoes under the sofa.

DGM would have been 122 this year - she was born on the same day as the Queen Mother but had a VERY different life 😂. She was one of eight including 3 decorated WW1 soldiers, and she ran off to war herself at 16 so she wasn't left out (she ended up working in a bakery behind the lines in France. Her senior officer knew she was under age and tried everything to make her admit it but she wouldn't.)

She was feisty, strong, both physically and mentally. Her husband and daughter adored her and she adored them. She was the person everyone called on for help.

She was a cracking cook - her own mother had been a cook in a ducal household and told tales of huge banquets with food her own family had never heard of, but she taught her daughters how to make the most of the food they had. DMum says they were the best fed family around during the war because DGM was imaginative with food and supplemented their rations with free fruit from the hedgerows and things like nettles and dandelions.

DGM liked a whisky and orange - she lived in a nursing home towards the end of her life and had a fiver a week as 'pocket money' - this was spent on a bottle of whisky which we smuggled in to her when we visited. We used to take a tin of fresh bread rolls and half a pound of butter because she couldn't stand the pappy white bread and marg they were served in the home, and a Dundee cake - she'd give me the almonds off it because her teeth couldn't deal with them......

When we were small she always gave us a bar of Fry's Chocolate Cream when we visited. She wasn't the kind of Grandma to play games with us or read to us, but we used to help her in the kitchen, and used to follow her around with a duster..... She used to let us play with the button box (which is now in my possession) and we'd have the odd game of dominoes or hand of whist, playing for pennies, or matchsticks if there weren't enough pennies around. And she'd never let us win, consequently we all now play a very good hand of whist!

I realise as an adult what an incredibly tough life she had - her husband, a miner, had been gassed in the war and had serious chest problems and bad eyesight as a result, and although he worked hard, there were times when he had to take time off work due to illness, so DGM always worked so they had enough money to cover the rent, doctors bills etc. She took in washing, worked in a cafe, baked cake for weddings, anything where she could scrape together a few shillings. When DGD retired and they were eligible for a tiny new bungalow she thought she was in heaven.

She died 4 months after I emigrated. DMum told me not to come back for the funeral as DGM wouldn't have wanted the fuss. Typical.

I still have my Nanna. She is 91 and we've all informed her she has at least another decade. She lives alone is brilliantly independent and I couldn't adore her more. She has been a massive part of my life and I couldn't even pick anything specific about her. Her old wives tale worries are a bit of a tickle at the moment.

I'm so happy my children know her

My little nan would have been 110 this year. She was a very fun and very cheeky chain smoking brummie.

She was a club singer in the 60's/70's and obsessed with Andy Williams & Nat King Cole .

Had 14 children & 93 grandchildren and could eat Tiramisu till it came out of her ears!

My Nan did a huge amount of childcare when I was tiny. We did all sorts together, at one point we used to walk to my Mum's work to meet her and walk home together. This involved walking over a cobbled street, I said it reminded me of a rocky beach in Cornwall (duckpool) and so we used to pretend we were scrambling over big rocks rather than walking through town, she'd lift me over the big rocks and we'd help pull each other over the really really big rocks.... I can only imagine how ridiculous we must have looked but we'd giggle the whole way! She also used to use her umbrella to knock the overhanging trees and drench me on rainy walks home from school. We had her over for the day last week, her rock scrambling days are over but she adores my kids!

My other Grandma was incredibly welcoming and warm, she had a big family and treated all the children the same, whether they came to the family through birth, adoption or marriage they were all her children and loved as such. She was also an amazingly creative lady. Always had handmade cards for everyone, she did sugarcraft cake decorating so any family event had the most spectacular cakes, I've still got my flowers she made for my wedding cake. Every great grandchild was knitted a blanket and a selection of clothes. Sadly she died before she got to meet my youngest, the only one not to get a blanket, I wish they could have met.

My Nan also died in 1999, she was 68, sadly I can't remember the very last time I saw her as she was rushed into hospital and never made it back home, I didn't get to visit her as I had to look after my younger siblings whilst my mum was visiting her.

I spent more time with her growing up than I did with my mum so we were very close, she was a proper working class Londoner and lived a really simple life, we'd get the bus all over London to go to the markets and she always had foxes mints in her handbag.

My nanny died in 1989, I was 7. I still miss her, and my grandad who died in 1999 and his late partner who gave him so much happiness after nanny died.

She used to bake cupcakes with me, and while they were in the oven we’d make ballerinas out of the cases.

They would have so loved my boys. I miss them so much

My paternal Gran was a force to be reckoned with. Loved us all fiercely as was very much the Matriarch of our family, I miss her dearly; she passed away in Feb 2007

She smoked Players, which made her hair and fingers yellow from the smoke/nicotine.

Her glasses would get greasy from her nose, so I'd wash them for her in the kitchen sink.

She'd get the bus to our house once a week, and after school, I'd get home and sit on the couch with her and put my head in her lap while she combed her fingers through my hair looking for nits.

We visited every other Sunday, and had the most wonderful lunches, we'd be stuffed to the gills and then sit watching The Borrowers, Antiques Roadshow and Songs of Praise all afternoon - bliss

She used to shout at grandad for whistling 😂

I could write pages and pages about my lovely Gran