Andrea Mowry is a very popular designer of beautiful knitted items. I love her designs and receive her newsletter. This morning she had a newsletter in my inbox where she was introducing a new pattern, Ginny, but she was talking about the influence and memories of her grandma who has now passed away. There’s a bit about her grandma on the pattern blurb but the newsletter had more info, and left me in tears . . happy tears.
You’ve read on here many times about the positive influence and great memories I have of my grandma. We all have only a certain amount of time here but we have even less time to make a positive influence and create memories with our grandchildren, or, really, with anyone. Most of us will not be remembered by anyone except a very few who were closest to us.
Andrea’s words this morning re-affirmed for me that having a place in MO where Addie and I can spend quality time together, where we can do crafty things, cook, play games, laugh, stay up late and sleep late on weekends and most of all . . make memories.
Some days I may only pick her up from school, then Nicole will come and get her when she gets off work about an hour later; some days she will spend the night with me; some days I may not see her at all, depending on their schedule but that’s how it is with grandparents who live near their grandkids . . even though technically, I won’t be living there.
I understand not everyone has great memories of their grandparents and I feel very blessed to have had the grandparents I had. I want Addie to some day look back and say the same thing.
By the way, her other grandparents are wonderful too. They live close, less than 15 minutes away, live on 40 acres, have chickens, dogs, cats, rabbits, and Addie is very close to them. Nicole’s mom and I are totally different. She doesn’t cook or knit but she does all kinds of fun things I don’t do. She loves doing pretend dress up and the creative things I don’t like to do. Nicole told me that when she and her sister were young, for holidays, even the ones we don’t really go all out for – like President’s Day, her mom would make them costumes – dress them up like George Washington or something and they’d wait out by the mail box for her dad to come home from work. Nicole has fun memories of things she did with her mom and Addie will have a lot of those same type memories from time spent with her Nana!
As I write this post, I know how fortunate I am to be able to spend the time with Addie and I understand not everyone is able to do that, for a variety of reasons. I am blessed and I hope I never forget that and never fail to appreciate it.
Helen B says
You have me sobbing, Judy! I miss my grandkids. Some live on the east coast and some are only a couple of hours away, but I want more time with them. I don’t have good memories of my own grandparents, but my grands and I have had some fabulous times.
Joyce says
I had way more years with my grandparents, (except my one grandpa who died when I was only 4), than most people get. I’m extremely blessed to have grown up with the family stories and learning so much from my grandmothers. (You know that helping Grandma is WAY more fun than helping Mom, even if you are doing the exact same thing you would be doing with Mom…I still remember dropping a raw egg on the kitchen floor. My cousin thought I’d be in big trouble, but Grandma just shrugged and said “accidents happen”. She got out a rag to wipe up the egg from the floor and told me to get another egg from the refrigerator.) Plus “learning” things with Grandma doesn’t really even feel like “learning”–it’s just fun! 🙂 It also helped that one of my Grandma’s believed that an empty cookie jar was a tragedy that should be remedied immediately. 😉
Susan Nixon says
You will not forget. You will not take it for granted. You will enjoy every minute, even the drama moments and be thankful. It’s who you are. You are blessed, but Addie is even more blessed!
Nelle Coursey says
I only knew one set of Grandparents. My grandmother was Nana and Grandad was Grandad! He was a second cousin to Will Rogers. Looked just like him but Grandad Rogers was a lot taller than Will.
vivoaks says
I totally understand!! My mom’s mother died at 98 1/2 and I remember her living with us several times while I was growing up. She’s the one that taught me to knit and crochet and I have very fond memories of those times. One of the things I remember is her always wanting us to brush her hair. She’d give us a nickel for brushing her hair for 5 minutes. She absolutely loved it! 🙂 (Back in the 60’s a nickel went a long way!!) She died on my daughter’s birthday – exactly 6 months after her 98th….great memories.
Bon says
I have great memories of both sets of grandparents and even some of my great grandma (who used to knit mittens for each of her greats every year for Christmas) and my great grandpa (who used to sit me on his lap and read to me.)
cassews says
My Grandmother and my hubs’s Grandmother were two very wonderful influences on my life. Exactly like yours but in different ways. It was great to can with one Grandmother or shop with the other Grandmother. Both were so wonderful to daughters and myself that every holiday, well every day I think of them.
I try very hard to be the combined Grandmother for all three of my granddaughters… Hopefully its working !! lol They haven’t stopped wanting to be with us during the years.