Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Grandmother Memories - My Mother's Mom

I have many memories of my Maternal Grandmother. As a child, we spent every summer vacation at my Grandparent's home in the suburbs of Boston, a beautiful, wooded spot on a hill. We played among the trees, picked blueberries, climbed rocks...the outdoors was our playground. No computers or video games to keep us inside, just a little TV in the afternoon or evening.


I loved both of my Grandparent's dearly. My Grandmother was a Working Grandmother, but not in the same way as you may be thinking. She worked hard keeping the house, keeping meals on the table, keeping the cloths clean and raising her children. When I was 12 years old, my dear Grandmother had a stroke that left her unable to do many of these things. My grandfather took wonderful care of her, and she lived many years, passing at the age of 90.


So if you are blessed with enough income from life circumstances or a marriage partner, don't ever feel that you aren't working at home, it's a lot of work raising children, preparing meals, planning shopping lists and menus, cleaning the house...I'm sure I don't need to write more.


Being a "Working Grandmother" means many things.

Updated 11/27/18

Grandmother Memories - My Father's Mom

My memories of my own grandmothers are distant, but far from absent.

My grandmother Richardson on my father's side...I guess I should say "paternal grandmother"... was part of my life in my younger years. I didn't have her as long as my maternal grandmother.

My Dad's mom did do some work from home. Dad's father, who I never knew, was a photographer. He took beautiful pictures, and my grandmother tinted the pictures to give them color. If you have ever looked at antique photographs, you'll know what I'm talking about. In portraits, a bit of color is added to the skin, the cheeks are made rosy, and other color may be added to enhance the photo at the artists discretion. Of course the reason for this was that in the early days of photography, there were no color photos. There was a real art to this.

I don't have any memories of playing with my paternal grandmother, as she passed when I was fairly young, my memories of her are the late years of her life when she was bedridden.

But she was a working grandmother, working from home so very long ago.

Updated 11/27/18