Memories of my grandmother

My Grandparents lived at the bottom of the garden- that is their back garden backed onto ours so I always had 2 gardens to play in & I could go back & forth from one house to another all day. My grandfather was a darling & adored me. He died when I was 7 but I have such very fond memories of him. I was an only child so he was great fun as a playmate too although he only had one leg following WW1. He could race me with his artificial leg on though! He taught me about gardening & made me a little chair so I could sit next to him as he worked
My 'Nanny' was Scottish & would sing folk songs & slightly ribald music hall ditties to me- tell the most amazing stories & indulged me totally.
They 'did up' an old air raid shelter in their garden as a den for me & I could always escape for a quiet place to read. Half the neighbourhood children played in that shelter at one time or another.
Nanny taught me to cook too - as did mum- & I put my love of cooking down to them both.
My other grandparents lived near the sea- which was great for holidays & had a huge garden - mostly fruit veg- which I was not encouraged to play in. Fair enough- there was plenty of room to play.
I was so very lucky & I try to be the same sort of Grandma to my 6 grandchildren.
Such wonderful memories- I feel quite teary now but nice tears.

Granma (maternal) - 4711! Granma (paternal) - soft biscuits!

Such lovely memories on this thread! I don't have much to add as my paternal GP's died in 1911 & 1917, way before even my mother was born, and my father's adoptive parents also died before I was born.

My mother's mother died when I was 4yo. I have very few memories of her, sadly. My mother nursed her in her final illness (a heart condition and diabetes - all totally treatable nowadays) and I recall their flat, with a big black mantelpiece/range affair in the living room.

My one memory is that before she was ill, she took me shopping with her some mornings. We'd visit the baker's, which was on a corner and had a door that was diagonally set, if you understand me. She would always buy me a bread roll that was a croissant shape. It wasn't a croissant as it was just ordinary bread but it seemed very exotic to me at three or four years of age!

I do not recall either grandmother talking to me or giving me any attention, I was never cuddled or shown any interest. When we visited GM we had to be seen and not heard.
I got on very well with my paternal grandmother when I was a teenager and older, she would tell me stories of her travels and the time she spent in New Zealand.

I remember when I was home from school my Nan used to come round every morning with a Nimble loaf and some ham for a sandwich- my mum used to go to work in the afternoon and Nan used stay with me and tell me all the family history - it is useful now as I am the one who tells the rest of the family who the people are in all the old photos.

Lovely to read all these memories! My maternal grandma was very hard of hearing and used to come out with some really funny comments to what she thought my granddad had said! Luckily she could laugh at herself though. She had beautiful long grey hair, which is ironic as my mum and I both lost most of ours after the menopause. Grandma used to love melted ice cream. I remember she used to stand a small bowl of ice cream on top of her cup of tea to make it soft, and then eat it with a teaspoon.

I mostly remember my granddad though. He spent lots of time with me in his wonderful garden, letting me eat the peas, broad beans, tomatoes etc. straight from the plants. Delicious!

Grandma wouldn't let him smoke in the house, and so he puffed on his rolled-up cigarette in the garden occasionally, while letting me chew on a dead matchstick to copy him. (Not very pc nowadays, I know!) By the way, I tried smoking to be like my peers in my teens when I was at school, but gave it up when I was sixteen because I hated it and it made me wheezy. (I never did manage to smoke a whole cigarette and, anyway, it became legal at sixteen so what was the point!)

My dad was made redundant and we moved thirty miles away to his new job when I was 9. Travel wasn't so easy in those days and I rarely saw my grandparents after that. I really missed my granddad especially, and was devastated when he died when I was 13. Grandma came to stay for a while, but she had no patience with me and my three younger siblings. She still liked her warm melted ice cream though!

My paternal grandmother died when my father was a baby so obviously I never knew her but my maternal grandmother was simply the best. Despite having eight children of her own when my mother's, her eldest child, marriage broke up, due to domestic violence she and my granddad took us, my mum, me and my brother and sister, in and we carried on living with her even when my mother got her own place to live. She was so kind and loving and I can hear her laughter even now although it's over 40 years since she died. She threw the best Christmas parties and could make a meal out of nothing and stretch it to feed whoever turned up at the house. She became ill and developed dementia in her late 50s and I like to think that me and my sister (my sister primarily) repaid her kindness by looking after her for a number of years at home. Very sadly she became too ill for us, just teenagers, to continue to care for her so she spent her last few years in hospital. Never ever forgotten my nan - simply the best.

Ahh, nannypiano - that's lovely

I was lucky enough to have all four of my Grandparents at my wedding. The two couples were very different. My paternal Granny and Grandad were religious and attended church twice on Sunday. They had boiled eggs for lunch as they didn't think you should work on the Sabbath. They lived in a tiny thatched cottage which Grandad had renovated as he was a builder. My Granny advised "let the man think he is in control but ensure you are".
My maternal Grandma and Grandpa were quite posh and played golf and Bridge. Grandma had fur coats and large diamond rings, her advise was "let him have his floozy but ensure you keep the house"

I was in my 50s when my M/nan died. She brought me up all my life and even though she had 5 children besides me I elected to care for her when she couldn't cope alone, in my home until she died aged 94. She dreaded going into a home so I vowed not to let her as she had cared for me. RIP nan.

Can only remember my grandmothers, as both grandfathers died before I was born. My maternal Grandma was sweet, shy, nervous and very tiny, looked like an ageing pixie, and lived in a very remote cottage in Cornwall with my uncle who was slightly autistic. She seemed very old when I was young, but she could only have been in her mid 60s at the time. She had no running water (there was a well in the back garden) or mains gas/electricity. Her cottage couldn't be accessed by car, so we had to park at the top of a hill and walk down a steep boulder-strewn track to reach her. We visited her twice a year and stayed in a wooden chalet in Hayle Towans;, which was nothing like as developed as it is now. Grandma used candles for lighting and cooked on a range or a paraffin stove. Everything about the cottage was dark brown as my uncle smoked a pipe constantly. I can still remember the smell of wood burning and paraffin. Grandma always gave my brothers and me half a crown - 12 1/2p in new money! It was a small fortune then. When she became too frail to live on her own, in the 1970s, she came to live with my Mum and Dad in Devon and Mum cared for her until she died at 98. She was a sweet old lady and met my son when he was first born (about 40 years ago), but she died soon afterwards.

My paternal grandmother (Granny) was totally different. Very well off, very dependent on others, whined constantly about how unfair life was, lived in a modern smart semi in a posh area of Bristol, and gave my spinster aunt (who cared for her) a nervous breakdown. Not that loveable a character really and never gave us a cuddle or a kiss.

I wonder what my grandchildren will remember about me? My children don't really remember my mum, who died in her 60s, but they loved my dad to bits, and so did I. He was fun to be with, even after Mum died. I hope they hang on to those memories.

Artificial Leg incident & Queen Victoria.
Until I was 14 years old we lived next to my maternal 'Nan & Pop' in a, 2 up 2 down terraced house with an outside loo (similar to Coronation St but not as posh) so they were both a big part of my life. Pop had lost his left leg in WWI and had an artificial one (called Reggie) that lived, on show, in the corner of the living room when not in use. All the kids were warned not to touch it but, of course, curiosity finally got the better of me and, during the distraction of a big family get together, I got my finger trapped in the hinge of the knee. My cries of pain alerted everyone who all managed to tut, wag fingers and mutter "you were told never to touch Reggie" before finally releasing me. I think I was probably left there (probably only for a couple of minutes, but felt like hours) as a warning to all the other children and luckily no permanent damage was done. Needless to say, I've never poked my finger in an artificial leg again .....
One of the many memories of my Nan was her telling me that Queen Victoria died on her 9th birthday and how really annoyed she was that everyone was very sad and wearing black. I wish I'd paid more attention to her other stories instead of always trying to edge my way outside to play with my mates

I was 12 when I lost both of my grandmothers within 3 months of one another. Without realising it at time they had a great influence in my life. Both were strong women dealing with difficult circumstances during 1930s. My Dad's Mum brought up 8 children in a two bedroom house in Portsmouth. All her children adored her. My memory is of her holding court in the front room and being partial to Harveys Bristol cream. My memories of my Mums mum is the smell of imperial leather soap, her white permed hair, herbread pudding, family gatherings on Boxing Day, she also made clothes and bought me my first premium bonds which I still have. I have photos of both of them in my living room. Both grandmothers had to learn skills to bring in money to support families. My Dads mum laid out bodies, decorated rooms for 5 shillings a room and would read tea leaves, my Mums mum, ran a parlour shop, took in lodgers and ran a B & B. My research into family history has made me respect both of them and the strong women in our family owe much to them

It's been lovely reading about everyone's memories of their grandparents. I was fortunate to know all 4 of mine well. I didn't lose any until I was 20 and my maternal grandmother died the week before my wedding. They were all very special people in my life. I'll try to make sure I have a good relationship with my lovely grandson, so that I can keep up the tradition of grandparents being very special people in my family.

My paternal nan, a widow, lived two doors from us, with one of her sons and the son's spaniel. She was 43 when my father was born and by the time I came along she was 77 and suffering from dementia. So I didn't ever feel that I 'knew' her. We moved out of the area when I was 6 and I don't believe I ever saw her again, though I know my parents visited her. I was 9 when she died.
My maternal nan was a different story altogether, lots of fun, always smiling and playing with my siblings and me. She would come round on a Friday evening and often helped mum by bathing us - so exciting because she put two of us in the bath together, something mum would never do! (Mum always insisted we had the bath to ourselves, with fresh water for each of us, despite the fact that we had no running water in the bathroom and she had to lug buckets of warm water from the kitchen .) Nan used to take us to her work's Christmas party, laid on for the children and grandchildren of the staff. I remember going up on stage, aged about 3, to sing I love to go a wandering. I got a pastry set for my efforts . Another thing Nan used to do was bring round a bottle of Tizer and some ice-cream and make us ice-cream sodas with it. Oh how I loved those frothy drinks!
Sadly, she died not long before we moved away, so from a very young age I was left, effectively, with no grandparents and I remember feeling so envious of my friends who still had all four.

My paternal grandparents lived in a terraced house in the town where I was born. My Grandad bought a television for the Coronation, and every Tuesday my mother took me to visit, and watch Andy Pandy. We didn't have a television until I was 7.
My Grandad had a shed and every spring he would measure my sisters and I and make a mark on the side of the shed with our initials, and the year. The shed is still there, I wonder...
My maternal grandparents lived in a four roomed house. Their front room used to be my grandad's workroom/shop when he was a tailor. my Nana succumbed to dementia and died when I was 16. I wish I could have known her before the confusion overtook her. She used to put the buttercups we gathered for her in a hollow China log, and display them on her window sill. Here is a picture of me on Coronation day. It is a bit dark.

Thank you LyndaW, and you have reminded me that both my Gran and Grandad played cards and dominoes with me , we played for either ha'pennies or matchsticks.

Paternal gran lived in a little terrace house with the loo out in the yard. She always wore a pinny that wrapped round and tied at the back. She liked a bet and would spread the newspaper racing pages across the kitchen table. She told fortunes reading tea leaves and cards. She used to pop out to the shops and come back with cream cakes. She loved a custard slice.
Maternal gran was widowed early. She lived in a prefab. She had a huge garden and grew raspberries and black-currants. She worked as a waitress and wore a black dress and white apron. When I stayed we slept in the same feather bed. She used to sing in the morning-"Red red robin" etc

Maternal granny (the English one) was not specially demonstrative but she was always there for us. She lived just round the corner and was quite reclusive. I now wonder if she suffered from agoraphobia, but when my other granny (the Scottish one) came to visit us, the two of them would go off on the bus together like old mates! She was very artistic, did lovely drawings, though she also did her own home decorating which once involved painting the bath, including the inside. She also did excellent embroidery. English granny came from a formerly affluent background, but her father spent the family fortune (if there was one) on the horses; Scottish granny came originally from very humble circumstances but 'married up', had a lovely big house and garden in Fife and did a 'grand tour' of relatives once every year. She always had knitting on the go. When she came to stay, I brought my school knitting home and she turned the heels of my socks for me. I don't think the teacher was fooled. Every afternoon as long as I knew her, she would lie down for a siesta on a chaise longue, do the Scotsman crossword, and have a little nap, accompanied by our boxer dog. Living at the top of the village, each day she would trudge down to the shops and back, at a speed few of us could match.

My maternal grandma had lovely long, straight. iron grey hair, usually in a bun, but she used to let me take the pins out and comb it, it was the highlight of my visits to her, and when I think of her, I still remember the lovely, clean hair smell. She died when I was 12.
My paternal grandma I lived with from just short of 13 until I married, aged 20. She was a nurse with the St. Johns Ambulance brigade, loved turning out in her uniform for events where they were needed. She used to make me laugh in church at Sunday morning communion. As it was approaching time to go up and receive communion, she`d be at the end of her pew as if on the starting blocks for a race, determined to be the first, or almost the first, up there! When we were first married, we lived a few doors away from her, then just over 2years later, she died just 3 days before we were to move into our new house, so sadly she never saw it.

What lovely links with the past these memories are. Sadly I never knew any of my Grandparents. My parents were both young when their fathers died (DM was 11, DF was 13), my maternal GM died before I was born and my paternal GM when I was 1 so I have no memories of her.

My maternal GM died when I was very young and I can remember being in the house when she died as everyone was upset but nothing about her.
Paternal GM lived 5 minutes away but not a cosy sort. She lived with her D and SiL and my two cousins , one a few months older than me and one a couple of years younger. You would have assumed they were the only GC she had and I had 7 other cousins similarly treated. My own relationship with my GC is a million times better. Just different times or different people?

Funny that this topic comes up today!
This morning I had a cortisone injection at the Dr's and asked how long the effect would last - he said, in English "wait and see!" I thought, where have I heard that before?
That's what my Gran used to say when I asked her "What's for pudding?"
We lived with her and Grandpa during the war. She was an excellent cook, could make something out of nothing.

I adored my Grandmother. She was a miner's wife, but came from a well off family. Which is why I'm now stuck with rules that I would not break, such as not wearing make-up or jewellery at breakfast (I look a fright at the hotel breakfast buffet ). She was very elegant, and never wore flat shoes or trousers or went out without a hat, even in her 90s. I loved hearing her tales about "the olden days" and breathing in that smell of Devon Violets and face powder. She cooked the best apple pies and bread and butter puddings ever. Her best room (was it the parlour?) had a leather chaise longue that had to be sat on very gently, glass domes with stuffed birds, and a copy of the ubiquitous (for the time) When Did You Last See Your Father? above the fireplace. My other grandmother died years before I was born and there had been a family fallout, so I know nothing at all about her, and haven't even seen a photo. Such a waste.

roses - sounds like something from a fairytale! You've painted a picture so beautifully. Miss mine too. Grandad always used to play cards with me and never let me win - I appreciated that when I got older.