Grandparents

craftytam

craftytam

Executive Chef, *Master in the kitchen!*, *Scrapp
My Grandpa is celebrating his 100th birthday in 2 weeks! This got me thinking about grandparents...
My husband's grandparents all passed away when he was young. But, I've been blessed to have my grandparents (on my Mom's side) through most of my adult life. We have lived fairly close all my life. Even though we aren't an emotionally super close family, my Grandparents did have a big impact on my life. I'm so thankful that my kids have all gotten to meet their Great-Grandparents. My Grandma passed away 6 years ago - it was the first death of a close family member for me - that was hard.

Do you still have your grandparents? Were (are) they a big influence in your life?
 
How wonderful Tammy to be celebrating your Grandpa's 100!

as for me- when I was born, 3 out of 4 were already gone. I have one photo of me with my maternal grandma. I was a baby. Although she passed when I turned 10, my only memory is baseball ( she was quite a fan, as bedridden), and the nursing home smell. I did meet my paternal great grandfather and have a couple pics when I was 2.5. He passed I was 3.

Since we moved south when I was young, I did not have any extended family near.

i feel so blessed my DD knew all 4 of her grandparents and she was old enough to have her memories of them ( plus me and pics). They were quite a part of her life.
:)

now that I have little David, I treasure all the time and take lots of pics. I want to be a part of his life.

my dad is 90. He went fishing today! ( I showed up and took pics)
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Wow, that is really special! Happy 100th birthday to your Grandpa! I am older and sort of have the same story as Michi. I don't remember either of my Grandpa's at all, as they died when I was very young. Both of my Grandmothers lived to be 90 though and I have fond memories of both, and funny enough they both loved the Twins, our MN baseball team. Hubby's Great Grandma lived to be 101, and we went to help celebrate. I told her she was the first person I ever knew personally to live to see a 3 digit age, and she chuckled and said, "it ain't what it's cracked up to be", lol. My parents are both 90 though and still get around pretty well, especially my Dad, he seems much younger, and I told him, you only look 80, haaahaha, he laughs and says, well thanks...I think, lol. Grandparents are awesome people! Great thread thanks for starting it, and we want to see pictures of the big celebration ;)
 
Happy Birthday to your grandpa!

Unfortunately, my parents and grandparents are now gone, but I did have them all in my life for some time and treasure all of the memories. I'm now Nana to 4 (soon to be 5) little ones, and I'm loving it!
 
Congratulations, Kathryn!
I'm so looking forward to being a grandma ...patiently waiting... hehe! 21 year old daughter isn't even dating right now! And, my boys are just 13 & 14.
 
Both of my grandfathers passed away when I was 12, and one of my grandmothers passed away when I was 16. My paternal grandmother lived to be 100, too! She passed away 3 months after she turned 100. That was 3 years ago this month. Unfortunately, we didn't live near any of my grandparents and so we didn't get to see them a lot. We were about 2 hours away, so not really far, but far enough that we didn't get to see them real often.

Because I didn't know my grandparents well, I am quite vigilant to make sure my children have a great relationship with my parents even though we are around 3 hours away from them. They love to be with my parents and I am pretty sure if I would let them, they would just choose to live there!! :)

That is really exciting that you are celebrating your Grandpa's 100th!! Quite an accomplishment for him!
 
Dana, that's awesome that you make such an effort so your kids know their grandparents! I'll bet your parents appreciate it as much as your kids do :)
 
Wow, that's amazing...100 years is quite the birthday for your Grandpa Tammy!!!

My maternal Grandmother was my only grandparent that was alive to meet my kids...she lived until age 92 and they were quite young 3 and 1 at the time. And unfortunately now my parents and hubby's parents are deceased as well. That makes me sad for my kids, at 12 and 10 without grandparents. I just cherish the memories that we do have of them and try to keep the stories alive for my kids now...it's all I can do.
 
That is sad Cindy and I agree that they are missing out on such a neat relationship that you can only get with a grandparent. As an adult looking back, there is so much I wish I would have asked my Grandparents about their years growing up, the depression, the war, raising children...and can you even begin to imagine all of the hard work they had to do EVERY SINGLE DAY?? Eeeeeesh. Thank goodness for washers, dryers, dishwashers, and sometimes frozen or fast meals, lol.
I have 2 cassette tapes that I created when I was in college for a project, and now I am so glad I did. I journaled a bunch of questions for my Mom about her as a child, where she went to school and her best memories, chores...you know, just stuff, and now at 90, she has such a hard time remembering anything, that if I were to ask her the same questions, she probably wouldn't be able to answer. My Niece borrowed it for her Son who had to do a family tree type of report for school, and they all listened to both tapes and said it was a great interview and so interesting! Hmmmph, I hold my head high :)
 
I only knew one of the 4 grandparents, as the other three had passed long before I was born. However, my maternal grandmother and I were very close. She moved in with us after I was born and took care of us while our parents went back to work. She was almost like a second mother to me. She passed a few years after I graduated from college. I treasure all the memories I had with her.

Now that my own little baby was just born (yay! He's three weeks old today!!) I want him to know his grandparents. He is lucky to have 3 of his 4 grandparents still living. (My dad passed 5 years ago...boy do I wish he could be here to meet his new grandson named after him). My mom has been here nearly every day and I have a feeling she will follow in my grandmother's footsteps and be like a second mommy to my little guy :)

Grandparents are wonderful and amazing people!
 
My kids don't really have grandpas and it makes me really sad. I mean, they "have" them, but both my dad and my husband's dad are "absentee." Both my mom & husband's mom love the kids (and are in the area), but don't really make much time to be with the kids (sad again). This was hard on my daughter when she was younger because she had friends who had very involved grandparents.
I've resolved that when I become a grandma, I'm going to be around the kids as much as they will let me! :)
 
Well, I guess I was lucky to have grandmother's and one great-grandmother very much a part of my life growing up. I also had a step-grandfather who was awesome. Both of my daughters were able to know my maternal grandmother for a bit before she succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease. They're lucky to have been really close to both sets of grandparents, though. Both of my parents are still living and active, as is my mother-in-law.

My girls are 22 and 20 - but no marriages or grandchildren in sight for me. I will be a crazy-involved grandma, I hope!
 
Mine are all gone:( I wasn't very close to them as I lived many states away from them growing up and that was in the days of expensive long distance phone calls and no internet, eek! But when I was little my Grandmother would keep in touch and send me mail and $2 bills which was always exciting!
 
zenjen said:
Mine are all gone:( I wasn't very close to them as I lived many states away from them growing up and that was in the days of expensive long distance phone calls and no internet, eek! But when I was little my Grandmother would keep in touch and send me mail and $2 bills which was always exciting!
Click to expand...

I think it's so much easier now with email, FB, Skype, texting, etc for us to stay in touch with each other...even if someone who isn't "tech savvy," most have at least a cell phone and can text.
The $2 bill thing must be a grandma thing because my mother-in-law did that with our kids :)
 
I lost my grandparents years ago, both grandmothers when I was 15, my grandfather a few years before, and my other grandfather passed when my grandmother was pregnant with my mom!

My parents are very involved as grandparents. They spoil my children like there is no tomorrow. I have to keep reminding them that they are not the occasional grandparents that spoil them a few times a year. They are helping raise my kids...and can't spoil them like that, LOL! She thinks I'm so mean...ugh! Oh well, she doesn't remember the time when she was raising me, haha!!
 
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