What Memory Makes you Smile?

An old photo (Dec 2023) that flashed up earlier on my iPad, as they do. Two rather younger Gdds, then 8 and 3, very happily showing two bun tins of mince pies ready for the oven - they’d put in the mincemeat and the pastry stars on top.

Hockey was probably the only thing I missed. 😂

A memory that came up on Facebook the other day was pictures of my husband taken on a day I got him for his birthday 15 years ago. It was to spend the day with birds of prey, handling them and flying them. He looked so happy.

An odd but very poignant memory that makes me smile is being in a M & S Cafe, mum, me, DD and GS. The ladies at the next table said how jolly our four generations looked, and how lucky we were to be out and about together.

(Mum went into our local hospice the next week, for her last 11 days 😿)

We brought our rescue dog home from BlueCross and left him in the house for an hour while we went out shopping. On our return , he was visible through the glass kitchen door, and at the sight of us his new "owners" his tail wagged furiously from side to side.He was clearly very pleased to see us , in his new home, away from the stress of the kennels who , of course , had done a wonderful job in caring for him , but they can't prevent some animals from getting stressed it comes with the territory.
I've never forgotten that first show of joy. Repeated many times and in many ways for years afterwards.
If I'd had a tail , mine would have been wagging as well !

Two best memories having my daughter placed in my arms after a long delivery and the day I opened the letter which said I was now an S.R.N.

Holidays I had as a child with my mother's family. They were so kind and generous. It is lovely now to sit and ponder and remember all the happy times with them 60 years ago. It was always summer.

My sister died in a road accident and we were all gathered at her house, my parents, my other sister and me with DH and teenage children. We had bought some sandwiches for lunch from a nearby sandwich shop and were sitting in the living room eating them when we heard an almighty crash from the kitchen. We rushed through. My sister had had to bring her two cats with her and they had jumped on the work top and put their heads in the empty sandwich bags to eat the contents left at the bottom. The bags got stuck on their heads, in trying to get them off they had fallen off the worktop and were blundering around the kitchen with paper bags on their heads.

We all started laughing, and somehow that broke the black inertia that enveloped us and gave us the strength to start doing all the things that needed doing.

Strangely when ever I think about those daft cats staggering around with bags on their heads, or any thing reminds me of them. I still smile.

I have two special memories, seeing my daughter age 3 smile at me three days after major heart surgery!
My other rather self centred memory like Samsaral was opening a letter saying I was a RSCN!

Cooking shrimps my boys had caught over a driftwood fire on the beach at Dunure Ayrshire. Summer days but freezing water and them fishing in rock pools. We had many happy days there over the years

Awwwww Fartooold - was it your little girl who had the major heart surgery ? I hope she is doing well now and thriving

I had two ginger cats and they used to sit on the pillars on either side of gate in my front garden. One was longhaired and looked a bit like a lion and the other was shorthaired, very stripey and looked slightly like a tiger. They were both very sweet and friendly and liked attention from passers by.

My youngest child 6/7 at the time telling me he had had the best day of his life.

His father and brother were mountain climbing in Switzerland, he was too young so stayed with me in Interlaken.
Our hotel didn't have a pool and he was in a filthy mood.

We found the best public pool ever with a flume, cafe, everything,
We had the whole place to ourselves until after lunch he just went up and down that slide for hours.

When we met up with his Father and brother, they tried to tell him how beautiful it was on the mountain, how they had done a dog sled ride etc.

He said “I don’t care because I have had the best day of my life”

Some years later my husband did the hike with him.

My DD at the age of five for some reason convinced herself that her knees didn't bend in the middle like other people's did when she walked. As a result, she had to check about every 6 feet by standing on the spot and bending them up and down several times (a bit like Monty Python's Ministry of Silly Walks.) I was quite concerned and mentioned it to her Head Teacher at Infants' School. She told me that the best way to deal with it was not to react, just ignore it and she would grow out of it.

Come DD's first Class Assembly, we were all gathered in the School Hall, including all the staff and the Head Teacher. Her class filed in after all the other children were there sitting on the floor, eager to see the assembly. DDs class filed in last and, sure enough, DD stopped every few feet to bend her knees up and down. I looked over at the Head Teacher and she was desperately trying to cover up the fact that she was crying with laughter at DD's shenanigans!

I looked over and gave her an "I told you so!" look. We went on to become good friends over the years both in and out of school.

That memory still makes me smile

I had cooked a roast turkey dinner for DD and her kids. I asked her youngest if she’d like some cranberry sauce . “ No thank you, I don’t like jam on it.” 20 years ago now!

I was wearing my new jeans and sitting reading in my conservatory when my daughter and 2 year old granddaughter walked in. My granddaughter stopped, looked me up and down and said, "ooh Gannie, nice touser." I still smile at the lovely compliment.

MiniMoon and others. Thank you all for sharing some lovely, evocative memories. I hope everyone is enjoying this thread as much as I am.

My younger grandson aged about two, marching into the living room, holding his pj bottoms up under his armpits.
"Mr Mummy..."
What?
"Do you think I look like Simon Cowell?"

During COVID we had a long spell when we didn't see our youngest grandchild. During that time he went from crawling to being able to walk. When we did meet up again his mum lifted him out of the car and he ran to us

During the latter stages of covid when we were allowed to walk outside as a “family bubble” but advised to keep six feet apart, DH and I took GS, then about twelve for a walk in the woods. DD had told him firmly that he was to keep the required distance from us and especially from grandad, because GS and DH were normally like ‘me and my shadow’! She was a stickler for the rules. This worked for a while helped by throwing a ball back and forth, but then I turned around and there they were arm in arm as always, stuck together like Siamese twins. Couldn’t help themselves! It makes me smile that they were always “best buddies”.

I have an old ginger cat ,she is called the wardrobe goblin because she practically lives in there, she would lay on the floor at the bottom of my bed which was about 2 foot from the wardrobe( small room) and pull the door open with her paws, it took a bit of door rattling and banging but she made it, at first I was shocked gave me quite a turn in the night.
Well my 2 granddaughters came over to stay age 9 and 13 they took my double bed and I had the spare room single.
One night there were screams coming from my bedroom ,I forgot about ginger and in the night they were woken to see the wardrobe door opening and closing constants and shaking, and they couldn't see Ginger as you couldn't see the bottom of the wardrobe...
I still smile when I think of it. We have moved now and Ginger is still with us

GrannyGravy13 what a very special memory. That will live with upu forever I think.


How lovely to also have those nice words from your café "neighbours".

It would be nice if they knew...

We should all comment more on the happy things we notice in life.

The smile on my DH face the night we met he had a smile that would melt the arctic that was almost 58 years ago sadly I losr him 21 weeks ago.

I posted a short video on line not realising there was sound in it.
When I listened back, there clearly to be heard in the background, was my little Granddaughter saying “Grandma, do you remember the other day when we took Willow for a walk and I had a wee behind a big tree?” Oh dear, 😉🙄🤣