Tell me about your lovely grandmothers who are no longer with us.

[Purplevioletsherbert]

I’ll start.

She was such a huge part of my childhood and I’d sleep over at hers most weekends. She taught me how to make cups of tea and cook scrambled eggs. We used to watch SMTV Live together curled up on her sofa on a Saturday morning and laugh until our faces hurt. She would send me to the chip shop across the road with a few pound coins for a bag of chips for our dinner.

She died when I was 13 and I’ll always be heartbroken my son never got to meet her.

My grandma lived in a yurt as a kid (and on one particularly cold morning she woke up with icicle on her nose- at least that's how I remembered the story when I was little). She rode a horse daily, and one of her fond memories is her dad taking her to a shoemaker to make her leather boots. She was a fashionista and made her own clothes. When I look at the old photos of her and her kids (she had six) they were always dressed immaculately neat and clean, although they had no washing machines, had to boil water etc. so she was very hard working. She went to school and had to learn to write in three different alphabets due to many social changes happening at the time.

My Gran was ace but woe betide you if you called her Granny.

Organised. Fair. Strong opinions.

My relationship with her really strengthened in my teens and adult years.

She was my biggest champion all the way through Uni. She wasn't allowed to go to grammar school despite passing the 11+ and a bursary as her brothers hadn't gone. Then her parents made her leave school at 14 and go into service. She resented this deeply her whole life.
She always worked for her own money and ran her own car in the 1950s which must have been really rare for a working class woman.

She financially supported me during my degree with an allowance from her personal savings and also from their joint income (my Grandfather was pretty successful so they lived well). She was a feeder and you could never leave the house without a food parcel. When we were kids she used to buy us Kellogg cereal variety packs and other treat food. As students it was turnock's caramel wafers and diet coke!

Saturday lunch at her house was a standing invite to the whole family for about 20 years. It was always fun to drop in and see who had made it for a bowl of soup and a roll.

She and my Grandfather were proper owls. Once my siblings and I could drive they loved it if we dropped in on the way past, and it was a very short detour from the main arterial route into the city centre to their house, so we did often. Usually after 10pm. There was always tea, chat and chocolate biscuits.

She loved to travel and masterminded many adventurous holidays - including driving over Scandinavia into Russia just after they'd started letting Western tourists in. Her happy place was with an atlas, pile of tourist information brochures and her typewriter sorting out their next trip. She would have LOVED internet travel bookings.

She died about 8 years ago when I was in my late thirties we were lucky to have had her for so long and I'm grateful I got to know her as an adult.

I miss both DGMs very much.

I have loads of young childhood memories with nan1; going to the local town every Saturday and being allowed a treat in Woolworths, her buying me billy bear sausage meat and tizer because she knew they were my favourites. £10 gift certificates every birthday. I spent so many hours playing with her make up and wonderful jewellery collection. I also remember watching gladiators, blind date and causality every Saturday evening. She sadly passed away when I was 17 from cancer.

nan2, I have more teen/ adult memories with, she’d do the most amazing Sunday roasts with home made desserts every week. I went on some lovely holidays with her, she took me to USA, Germany and some other lovely places. Our last get together before she suddenly and unexpectedly passed away was a ‘girls’ day out, we went shopping, had a lovely meal and shared a bottle of wine, I’ll cherish the memory forever ❤I moved to London a few months before she passed away, she was due to come visit and stay with me the date that ended up being her funeral.

She knew my heart. I loved her and she loved me.

Great thread :)

My granny was a farmer's wife (West country) Apparently the way to woo a woman back then was to catch and skin them a couple of rabbits 😅 she was a no frills, straight talking kind of grandparent. We got let out to go and play on the fields with no supervision which was great. She had a great sense of humour. Grandparents are so precious, I miss them all so much :'(

My other grandmother (Nanny) remembered a time when your parents had to sign a form to give to the school to say you hadn't done more than 30 mins (something like that) homework a night! They valued play in those days it seems!

My lovely Gran passed away when I was 27 and I was so close to her and my lovely Grandad. She was the kindest lady ever and the most amazing baker! Even in my twenties when I went round she always used to give me a £10 note. I remember spending weekends at their house as a child and on a Saturday I'd have a bath and wash my hair and sit in my jamas with my Grans dressing gown on, watching Blind Date, Gladiators and Casualty, eating a Turkish delight my Grandad bought us from the shop. I have some of her handwritten recipe books and every now and again try one - never the same as hers though!

My grandma was very special. She was 86 when she died, I was 40. My dd was named after her and looks just like her.

My grandma was incredibly clever and hard working - she ran the family farm during the war. She was a superb horse woman. She was also the worst cook I have ever come across - except for pastry. She taught me so much.

Sadly she died a terrible death after alzheimers wrought its worst.

I only had mine for 7 years 🥹 wish I had had longer. She used to knit me cuddly toys and jumpers and cardigans all the time! I still have all the toys and some of the jumpers / cardigans which I hope to pass down to my children (because childhood is just not complete without a classic home knitted jumper in two clashing colours).

She was fiercely protective and would do anything for me and my sibling. Wouldn’t take flack from anybody. Very sharp and very loyal. I would love to be like her.

My DG lived overseas so I stayed with her for 6 weeks every summer holiday in primary school. I'd wake up to the smells of her cooking, a beautifully set breakfast table. She was always down to do some baking and she would call me with urgency to run to her kitchen window to see a little bunny or a bird in her garden. She taught me how to knit and she saved Shirley Temple movies for me to watch on video tape. She had a room full of crafts and my bedroom was painted lilac. She lived in a hot country and her sofas were cool. She had a wicked sense of humour and a sharp tongue. Like all women of her generation she lived through a lot in her lifetime, dealt with heaps of sadness but she was so full of love and always thought about others. I miss her so much. She visits in my dreams sometimes which is a joy. I miss her smell.

What a lovely thread OP. Thank you, nice to be able to think of her.

I still miss my DGM 24 years later. When I was little and stayed over, she'd light the coal fire in the bedroom (back in the 70s) and I'd snuggle up to her. She had a ceramic potty under the bed ☺️
I remember her loose potato pie with a crust on top (I still have the old pot). I'd go to the local library and shops with her. She was funny, kind, very tidy and organised and I know she absolutely adored me. I remember one of the final hugs she gave me and we held onto each other for a long time 😓

I adored her. She used to make the most delicious pasta salads, pavlova, and sticky ribs with rice. We played badminton in the garden and went to our local flower show every year. She sadly passed away in 2006 at the age of 59, I was 16. I miss her every day.

My great grandmother died four years ago at the age of 100. She outlived two of her three children, leaving just my grandad who was her carer for the last twenty years of her life. The last thing she said to me was to never get so old because it wasn’t much fun!

She really was the matriarch of that side of my family. At the time of her death she had 55 grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren. She called everyone ‘duck’ and had such an active social life well into her 80s (until sadly her friends had all passed away).

What a lovely thread, and so interesting to read about all the social changes too (especially the 30 minute restriction on homework - wouldn't happen now!).

My gran on my dad's side was really cool, she was the only one of my grandparents I had a real relationship with, and she was like a parent to me (Especially during the times when my actual parents weren't being like parents to me). She died when I was 18 and I couldn't stop crying at the time. Ever since then there have been lots of times when I'd like to see her again, it's a shame we didn't get more time with her but I'm grateful that at least I had her support up to 18. My brother was a prick to her, I have no idea why (maybe he's just a prick generally lol), he never appreciated all she did for us.