SEVEN FOR YOU â—½ TIPS
Portrait of a Grandmother
Our Panel of Women
It’s Mother’s Day month, and we thought it would be so fun to remember our grandmothers. How they looked, talked, what they did, how they influenced us or not, all the things! I think you’ll enjoy what each lady had to say, and I hope you’ll remember your grandmother or a grandmother you love and smile this month of May.
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This is my Nannie. Her name was Jane Hughes Higham, but everyone called her Jenny. She was born in 1912 in Pontardawe, Glamorgan, Wales, and married my grandad in 1935. Grandad lost his first wife and their third child during childbirth. He met Nannie at a garden party; it was love at first sight. She took on the task of raising his two daughters and had three more children. They lived in a town just north of London during WWII. She and the family spent hours in air raid shelters and dealt with blackouts and food rations. She did all of this with a smile and had a kind word for everyone she met.
I remember tea times and the china teapot that was hers and is now mine. Tea time was formal. A tea trolley, cloth napkins, sugar cubes, fresh milk, and Eccles cakes. No matter how poor they were, there was the need to keep up tradition and a sense of normalcy. She loved Grandad more than life. He passed away in 1998 and she followed to be with him in 2000. – Cathy
I was blessed with two grandmothers and a great aunt that never had children of her own and treated us as her grandchildren.
My great aunt took me to Furr’s cafeteria and let me eat green Jell-O and macaroni and cheese for dinner. She let me play in her closet of fur coats and mink stoles and fox collars. It was a magical place. She kept Archie comic books in the drawer beside the bed where I slept when I spent the night with her. She passed away when I was 14 and it was a big loss to me as a kid.
My paternal grandmother worked very hard at the family business. Until she retired I remember her as being tired and grumpy. Her love was obvious and freely expressed, but I can’t remember that she was fun or engaged in my life.
It’s funny, although my maternal grandmother passed when I was eight I have very distinct memories of her. I was the only granddaughter on that side of the family and she loved me deeply. She was a very kind and nurturing woman. She rocked me and sang “How Great Thou Art” and other old hymns over me. She prayed for me. I wish she had not passed in her early 60s so that I might have known her better.
Between these three women, I had it all. I was spoiled and had fun. I was greatly loved. And I was nurtured and prayed over regularly.
Just writing this has made me realize that this Mother’s Day instead of focusing on receiving all the cute cards and flowers from others, I will take extra time and energy to be grateful to the Lord for these women in my life. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. – Shelley
I only knew one grandparent, and that was my father’s mother. Because we grew up in the Air Force, away from a “hometown,” I didn’t get to know her very well. She was a tall-ish woman who always had blue or purple hair. She was a cigarette-smoking, poker-playing, Spanish-speaking grandma. Because our Spanish wasn’t very fluent, it was difficult to communicate with her, but she was easy to make laugh! She loved the I love Lucy series and watched it on her television daily. She wasn’t much of a cook, but I loved it when she made “Gorditas” from scratch. Sometimes I’ll walk into a Mexican restaurant and smell the corn tortillas and I’m reminded of her. She was quite a character! – Anita
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Unfortunately, my Mom's mother was killed by a drunk driver when my mother was 13 years old; I look forward to knowing her in heaven. But I spent a lot of time with my Dad's mom. Her name is Marion. She gave birth to her second child via c-section with absolutely no anesthetic. We called her "Dee Dee" and Dee Dee smoked and had a temper, specifically road rage. I still get cracked up over those memories. But Dee Dee knocked holidays out of the park. She made each one special, and as an adult looking back to those memories, I KNOW how much work she put in to make each one special for us. She also let us grandkids host a garage sale each summer to raise money for a trip to the water park. Again, looking back, I can see we just THOUGHT we were hosting that garage sale. In actuality, my grandmother was really doing the work and giving us credit for it. Dee Dee fed us grandkids all the time. I am making her brownies this week! And she let us play in the mud...we made mud cakes and got extremely filthy. She also was a gardener and loved fishing. I remember that she had a coffin in the back of her back yard....it held a worm farm...so funny! She used the worms for fishing and the soil to nourish her garden. I wish I would have paid more attention to that and learned from her. She was Catholic and she prayed for us all the time. I look forward to seeing her in heaven.- Laura
My grandmother, Lina Blevins, on my mom's side was feisty, skinny, funny, and the best. When I was in middle school, I walked to her house after classes, where she would have a large plate of homemade French Fries or a bowl of macaroni and cheese waiting for my brother and me to enjoy. And...she walked midway to meet me and insisted on carrying my saxophone the rest of the way (and she was old!) I often wondered what people thought when they saw my granny carrying my heavy load. She played the piano, and she enjoyed sitting on her porch metal glider swing and counting cars with me. She was just beautiful, inside and out, and made life so fun. Her macaroni and cheese is still a staple and a favorite with my kids and their kids, and even my nieces and their kids, too! The picture I’ve included is my mom and Granny walking downtown Austin shopping in the 1940s - Marcy
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My momma’s mother was always active in my life. I grew up living in a house right behind hers. When I was sick, and Momma had to work, I went to Ellowe’s and she took care of me. We called her by her first name. My brother started this when he was first talking, and it stuck. After my momma died, I lived with Ellowe two different times. She had a weight problem and wasn’t in good health, but she was always there for me, even when I was a rebellious teen. She disciplined me and at the same time, she was my best friend. She taught me so much, the main thing being about perseverance. I lost her in 1990 to lung cancer, six months after my last child was born.
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One of my fondest memories was in preparation for Thanksgiving one year while I was single. Ellowe had to work that morning and was coming to my house for Thanksgiving dinner. It would be just the two of us and I WAS COOKING! She had asked me to. But I didn’t know how to cook anything, much less a meal for Thanksgiving! And I told her this, so she wrote the recipe for dressing on an envelope and told me I would do wonderfully. As we ate that day, she praised my cooking telling me everything was so good. She was the best! All the dishes I made, and especially my dressing, were not near as good as hers but it didn’t matter. We were together and that’s all she ever wanted. The dressing recipe on that envelope has gotten old, but I still use it to go by every year. – Carole
My maternal grandmother was one of the strongest women I've ever known. She had a very hard life as a logging camp cook and cannery worker and lived on a tiny pension.
She was austere looking to those who didn't know her, but oh, how every young person in our church loved her and cherished her powerful prayers, as did I!
When we were little we loved spending Saturday nights with her, except for trimming her corns and oiling her feet! And we had to wash our feet again before climbing into her big soft white bed that smelled so fresh.
Walking to church Sunday mornings was so fun. Once there, we'd settle on who got to sit by her. But, there was no horsing around because church was serious business. If we got fidgety, and if we were very good, she'd hand us one of her pretty, embroidered hankies to occupy our little hands. They were white, starched and perfectly ironed and folded and we loved them! How we loved her and miss her. She certainly influenced my life in so many ways. - Debbie
My Grandma Wilkins lived in Southern California in Tustin, near Disneyland. Every summer in the 1960s, we stayed with her and she would take us to Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, The Wax Museum, the Zoo, and all the fun places a kid wants to go. I remember she would warm my pajamas in the oven at bedtime. Later, I attended Chapman College near her home. She actually spent the night in my dorm while her house was being painted – it was a blast!
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My Grandma Dor was 2nd wife to my Grandpa Len, and lived in Juneau, Alaska. She was fascinating and very up on politics. Every year I received a $25 Savings Bond (remember those?); she wanted to make sure I had money to go to college. She worked in the State Capitol as a purchasing agent – I always thought she was my cool grandma!
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My Grandma Silva lived in Fall City, Washington. And even though she was the grandmother to my older half-sister & brother, she treated me just as special with gifts and visits. I remember when my sister Linda got married in 1968, Grandma Silva painstakingly rolled my long hair in strips of cotton sheets to make ringlets; I was the flower girl in the wedding party. When I was in high school, in the mid-1970s, she gave me a roll of beautiful brocade fabric that I used to make my prom dress. She taught me family is family - regardless of the bloodline.
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My Grandma Leela, who was my (step) Dad’s mother. I remember her from an early age being in a wheelchair in a nursing home. We visited her every Sunday after church. I never heard her complain, and she was always grateful that we came to visit. She taught me compassion, patience and kindness for those less fortunate in health.
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My Great-Grandmother, Susan Evans, was born in 1887. She raised five children, including my Grandpa Len, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. All her children were college-educated, and after they left, her home became a boarding house for international students attending the Univ. of Minnesota. During WWII, she was a teacher at a Japanese internment camp in California. She lived with us in the early 1960s in Las Vegas when I was a toddler. She would make oatmeal for breakfast and name the mound after a mountain! - Gloria