What are your Grandparents like?

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Mom's side:

Granddad grew up just outside of Lake Como in Italy during Nazi occupation. Once had a snowball fight with two German soldiers. He almost hopped on a train to go see Mussolini, err, "on display" in Milan but his mom wouldn't let him. Moved to America with his parents, eventually became an engineer and did stuff for Lockheed (he won't tell me what lol).

Never knew much about my grandmother. She died of breast cancer when I was about 14 and I only got to see that side of the family once a year.

Dad's side:

Both grew up in farms in the San Joaquin Valley in California and witnessed the final years of the depression and WWII. My granddad was a transport mechanic in Korea and after the war he married. They had 5 kids who gave them 22 grand kids (incl. me) and since they still live in Fresno all they can do is drink like there's no tomorrow. Fun times to be had over in the middle of farm country... He also has a well-preserved 1970 Dodge Charger in the garage.
 
The way this thread title appears in the thread list is my response.

What are your Grandparents like? Crispy.
 
Those on my mom's side's good. I don't know about my father's. I find it very nice, that they drive 60 km, to get me to the hospital, which is another 35 km away - and back, 3 times every week (currently) :D.
 
Sadly my grandma is the only left. My grandpa died around '96. Another sad thing was that's the year I was born sigh. I really dislike the people who look at your opinion and fiercly attack you but know nothing about your background, your life, what you been through. They assume you as just a kid, a idiot. People don't know nothing about you.

But my grandmom is like a gangster she drives buicks and mopars. Lol but she is kind
 
Father's side:

Grandfather: Died in 2011 at the age of 100. Was born in Poland and was forced to the Siberian work camps during World War II. (I don't know what happened with him during World War I, but nobody passed away from that). He lost his girlfriend during the war. He married in 1947 in a Displaced Persons camp in Austria before coming to the United States. He was very quiet and only spoke when he felt something needed to be said (probably a result of the Siberian camps). He was kind and generous and loving to all of his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Grandmother: Still alive thankfully but to this day I don't know her age (somewhere in the mid 80s to early 90s). She was born in Poland and was in the forests during the Second World War. She is significantly younger than my grandfather but she has a kind heart as well. She, though, is a chatterbox and probably speaks for my grandfather (as in, if she said he liked something, he liked it, without any real justification behind it :dopey:). She is my only remaining living grandparent.

Mother's Side:

Grandfather: Died at the age of 76 in 2002. Born in 1926 in Germany, my grandfather was a strong willed man. After emigrating to the United States, he was enlisted into the US Navy and worked during WWII in the Aleutian Islands before getting injured while working. He was a very loving and kind individual and because he passed away when I was under the age of 15 I probably learned more about him after his death than while he was living, something I wish I didn't have to say.

Grandmother: Died at the age of 79 in 2009. Born in 1929 in Germany, my grandmother was truly a wonderful individual. She trained to become a social worker after getting married and helped with adoptions of children. In her final years she was living with my family but she was always determined to be independent. She was quite stubborn but that's the only negative thing that even comes to mind about my grandmother.
 
All dead bar my mom's mom. Grandfather on my dad's side succumbed to a combination of Alzheimer's and cancer five years ago, his wife from colorectal cancer back in '92. I don't remember much about her except Christmas and New Year's family gatherings; she was always laughing. He had served in WWII and worked 35 years as a garbage man for the city, never missing a single shift during that. He saw it as an important duty for the community, and it did pay decently well; they had 7 kids to take care of, after all.

My mom's dad? No idea; my grandma did something pretty rare back in the sixties; she got tired of an abusive 🤬 and left with my mom in tow, without so much as a dime in any support. She worked 50+ hour weeks at a steel manufacturing mill, and I remember visiting her a few times before she retired. She'd still work the machines better than guys half her age, and really was the modern day equivalent of Rosie the Riveter. She's 5'10", drinks gin, and insists on driving big, rear-drive, american land yachts. She turns 81 this year, but barely seems a day over 60. She's the best female role model I've encountered, and I love her.

Oh yeah, and the guy she left? Died a few years ago.
 
eventually became an engineer and did stuff for Lockheed (he won't tell me what lol).

If he worked on something top secret there will sometimes be a signed document that says he has to take any secrets he learned to the grave with him.
 
Mums side:
My mums Dad is dead, died in his sleep summer 2010 at the ripe old age of 84. He suffered from dementia in his last few years which wasn't nice to see, but hey ho.
My mums mum is still with us, at 81 she's still going strong and has a few more years in her yet. Her and my gramps met back in the second world war, she lived in the city and was sent out to the country to my grampys farm in Somerset. And they had been together ever since.

My dads side:
Well my grandad is still with us, he has suffered from a number of strokes and is partially paralysed. But his life is somewhat shrouded in mystery, all we know is he travelled the world in the 50s but he won't tell us what he was doing. I think he ended up in Asia, particularly Vietnam, Japan and China. We think he may have been in the forces.
He came back to England in 1959 I think, and for some reason signed up to a drug testing trial, you know the ones where humans volunteer as the guinea pigs and have trial drugs tested on them, with unknown side effects. Anyway he signed a legally binding contract, but whilst on his way to the test centre he got cold feet and bailed. He was on the run for 6 months.
After that he settled down in the West country and set up his own farm, with a part time job as a signal box operator and met my Nan, and have again been together since.
 
All still alive, thankfully. As they progress through their eighth decade, however, I don't know how much longer they will be.

My grandparents on my dad's side are complete opposites of each other. My grandfather was stationed in Taiwan for the military when he met my grandmother; he brought her back and she now lives in Omaha, Nebraska. She's a short stereotypical Chinese woman, and hilarious to be around. She constantly plays bingo and gambles, and her house is a pit, but she's a wonderful person. Her ex-husband (he went through almost as many wives as he's been through cars) lives in Tampa, Florida and is your typical old redneck.

My grandparents on my mom's side are completely different from the ones on my dad's side. My grandfather's name is Worthington Fowler, which gives you an idea of what he's like. He always thought of himself as a gentleman and dealt with his three kids with a belt. He has some great stories to tell, though. He was the navigator on B-52 bombers while in the military, and at one point everyone else on his plane was killed with anti-aircraft fire and he had to fly the plane to and land it on a U.S. airfield, being given real-time instructions from the base. He has given me some priceless items from other ancestors that were dead before I was born, including production records, shop cards and photos from my great uncle Eastman's turn-of-the-century car company. My grandmother is much the same as her husband, and until recently mothered ducks and geese. They refused to move out of their home into a retirement home until last summer, when all of their children convinced them to finally move out, and they're now living happily in a retirement home.
 
eventually became an engineer and did stuff for Lockheed (he won't tell me what lol).

:lol: Drives ya nuts right? Like throw us a bone at least? LOL
I have an uncle-in-law who's retired & in his 70s or 80s, and he's lived all over the world in places it's kind of odd for Americans to live for work. I asked about that, & the most I could find out from anyone is that he was some kind of engineer, but nobody knows exactly who he worked for or what he's done his whole life. :odd: :boggled: It drives me crazy.
My step-father was a scientist physicist who worked on the a-bomb, Manhattan Project. He died 2-1/2 years ago at the age of 87. And at the end, he was on a heart medication that made him confused at times, and he was concerned that the medication & his senility was going to make him vulnerable to divulging secrets. :( The poor guy! How awful is that? I had asked him about his work on the atomic bomb years ago, and this kind gentle man seemed very stern in refusing to say much of anything!! Like I was highly out of line to ask such things! lol I thought surely so many years later he could say SOMETHING. You'd think a lot would've been declassified by now. :boggled:

My grandfathers, on the other hand, told me LOADS about their work. And that was quite exciting and very very awful.
My paternal grandfather, who died when I was 7, worked in the steel mills in Pittsburgh & survived being burned in a fire, and then went to work in the coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania. I still remember sitting on a bench with him in the back yard (he lived next door to us), and him telling me that I should have great respect for my OTHER grandfather who worked in the mines from age 12. Because my paternal grandfather at least didn't do the dangerous work until he was 19 or 20 (that's when he immigrated to the U.S. with his brother).

I really highly recommend finding out as much as you can from your elder family members while they still remember things well!! There's so many things that later in life I became curious about, and it was too late to get any specific information, because nobody really knows, and now half of my uncles & aunts are dead as well, as well as both my father & step-father.
I have no clue about my paternal grandfather's family in the Old Country, even though in the early 70s, he went back to visit them (for the first & only time).
I had exchanged some letters with a cousin of my maternal grandmother some years ago. And apparently she had the typical Polish family - one son in the army, and one son became a priest.
 
Erm...where do I start. Should I do this sober?

Let's just say almost all, including the ones that aren't from Ireland, are slightly nuts, but not 'old people' nuts, just certifiable (I must get it from somewhere). Growing up I had 7 grand parents, now I'm down to 4. :(

All British or Irish making me a full UKian! :D
 
Can't say much good about dad's parents unfortunately, as his mother died when he was young, and his father was for the most a stranger in his life.

My mom's dad was a self-made man. One of the youngest in his family, but had to man up when his father passed on. Educated himself, got a job in the British rail system in India, and then educated everyone else with his earnings. Married my grandmother when she was 13, he was 17 turning 18 I believe, but didn't live together until she was 19 I think.

He later passed on when my mom was in college, but my Grandmother is still alive, but unfortunately cancer has afflicted her for the past 6 years. She's a strong woman though, and it's in part due to the lack of a childhood as her mother died when she was only 7 so she had to grow up and take charge of the household duties.

It hurts to say, but I know that she knows that her time is coming.
 
Interesting. My maternal grandparents are separated, and both of my paternal grandparents are deceased. I never knew them well, but I'm fond of my living grandparents. However, both have their quirks (who doesn't).

My grandmother has mental illness which causes her to have delusions about her past. It also means that she distorts certains things. She thinks that her mother tried to kill her throughout her childhood, and that my grandfather is trying to kill her. Despite this, I love her very much.

My grandfather is fairly normal, but is currently married to a woman who is very odd. (his second wife). It's hard to carry a conversation with her for more than 15 seconds, even if you haven't seen her for 2 or 3 years. Also, she won't visit us, but tries to get us to visit them. They're retired, yet can't be bothered to visit a family with one memeber working full time and two others in school.

So there you have it.
 
Paternal grandfather: Dead before I was born, think he was dead even before my father and mother married.
Maternal grandfather: Same case.
Paternal grandmother: Around 82 years, I presume. She lives alone, with all her pets. Must have around five dogs, at least two cats, and many birds. We gave her our 50-year old parrot to keep with her, and it died a few years ago. She called home crying, telling us it passed away. My father visits her every week, and spends New Year with her. The rest of us (mother, brother and me) haven't visited her in a while. She is a nice person, but seems sort of rude, and gets angry easily. It's funny to see my father, who is a very irritable person himself, act all calmed down in front of her, as if he was just a child.
Maternal grandmother: I think she is 89, or 90. She lives with us, and is bedridden since four years ago. Before that, she walked with the aid of a cane. The reason she can't get up is because she falled in our bathroom and fractured something, don't remember exactly what, but instead of "recovering", that is, trying to get on her feet again, she didn't, and now it is too late for her to try. Unlike my other grandmother, who is completely independent, she requires my mother assistance all the time (naturally), which gets on my mother's nerves. As a consequence, my mother is unhappy most of the time.
Right now, she spends her days watching TV, as it is basically all she can do in her condition. Also, there are times when she can barely put two coherent words together, while in other ocassions, she is completely lucid. The latter happens mostly when someone calls and asks to talk to her, mainly my godfather. While she could walk and talk normally, she was a very nice person, always caring for us. I remember she always prayed, and it hit me hard the other day when the new Pope was elected, and she did not even remember how to pray. Another time I started crying because she did not remember my birthday, and while it is completely understandable, it's very sad for me to see her in such condition.
 
This thread is actually kind of depressing. Plus, it makes me think of my grandparents. Which depresses me more.
 
This thread is actually kind of depressing. Plus, it makes me think of my grandparents. Which depresses me more.

Which is the exact reason I won't be reading it properly until I'm ready to deal with all the grief, which is probably a few years from now.
 
My Nan, called Barbara (Mother's Side) is a lovely woman, 70 years of age and I love her to pieces. She's always been there for me when I've been in need and I can't thank her enough for it. My biological Grandfather I've never known, he ran out on my Nan just after my Mum was born. However, my Nan got married in 1997 to the nicest man ever. John his name was, he was from Bristol and I have so many fond memories with him. He sadly contracted pancreatic cancer in 2006 and passed away in February 2007, terribly hard for a 9 year-old at the time. I still miss him to this day.

Moving on to my Dad's side, my Gran called Mary is lovely. She's about 81, she lives with her partner which means I don't see her as often as I used too. I do cherish the time I spend with her as I never know if I'll see her again. My Grandad, Peter sadly passed away in 1999, again from cancer. I don't remember him as I was just a two year-old at the time. It's a real shame as I've heard that he was a lovely, lovely man.
 
Mum's side:
Grandmother- Alive and well, seems quite brash and aggressive to strangers but she's actually very sensitive and caring when you get to know her.
Granddad- Also alive and well, still married to my grandmother, very active and in good health, a very traditional granddad in someways, love him and my grandmother to bits.

Dad's side:
Granddad- A good Grandfather, unfourtunately mostly housebound due to having to care for my Grandmother, slightly lacking in emotion but generally means well.
Grandmother- Had a stroke a few years back, meaning she's bound to a wheelchair and is only really able to use her right arm, as well as being unable to speak or write. I really miss her in some ways, despite still seeing her.
Biological Grandmother- No idea, don't really care. Had a huge falling out and pretty much upset my Dad's entire family and hasn't really helped herself with some more recent actions. I last saw her at the age of 4, don't remember what she looks like, and she probably wouldn't recognise me...
 
3 out of 4 are dead.

On my Mums side, they went before I was old enough to remember at all.

On my Dads side my granddad passed away about 14 years ago, so it's just my Nan now, shes good, reminds me of the Queen. I should probably call her.

I do feel bad, we're not a close family at all. My granddad served with the RAF in Burma during WWII, he never really spoke about it as I recall, but it's only years after he died (and I was a bit older) that it sank in that he fought in the War, a big proper War, to defend my freedom, I would like to have spoken to him more about it.
 
It IS a bit sad... but I must say I'm finding it fascinating reading about everyone's grands around the world. :)

And to everyone who is taking care of an elder at home, I have heard many times, is quite challenging, and should be commended - with a medal!
 
Dad's Side: The cool side if I'm honest, my grandma sure knows how to buy clothes for me. :') My grandad was in the army and was involved in the boat disaster on the Yahtzee River I believe it's called, I never really pay attention when him and my dad talk about the army so I can't remember if that's the right event name. Also they can be a little racist at times.
Mum's Side: Grandad died around 3 years ago I think, he was awesome! He was from Mauritius which is a pointless piece of info but I think it's brilliant to have a family member from a country no one in your school's ever heard of. :lol: To be honest my grandma is very boring, a very middle class catholic. She annoys me quite a bit, usually because I get annoyed from petty things regardless. :')
 
If he worked on something top secret there will sometimes be a signed document that says he has to take any secrets he learned to the grave with him.

Yep. A cousin-in-law is at Lockheed now and he's signed more than one of those. He said he did more mechanical stuff as opposed to explosives and super crazy stuff, but when he had ankle surgery earlier in the year they sent an official into the operating room with him to make sure he didn't reveal anything under sedation.

:lol: Drives ya nuts right? Like throw us a bone at least? LOL

It drives him nuts because he likes being able to tell people what he's done with his life lol. Sometimes he'll just say "I build bombs" to mess with people :lol:
 
All of my grandparents are dead but I was raised by my grandmother. She was really strict and very religious. I remember she had a life-size model of Jesus carrying a cross placed in our house once from our church and had people all over stop by just to pray there...
 
Righty then, My dad's (Irish) side I don't know well. His father was the feather weight boxing champion of Ireland and a soldier, he died before my dad was born and never married my grand mother who is alive and healthy but absolutely insane; she's most likely a sociopath, still, she's good to me and my sisters. My Irish grand mothers I have never met but I hear one is close to death.

My great grandparents on my dad's side smoked 40 a day and ate bread and dripping for breakfast every day. Great grandfather was a Grenadier Guard and did his bit during WW2 out in Europe and came from mid-Scotland. Great grandmother was from the valleys in Wales and could sing like an angel. The both pegged it around a decade ago but they were both over 90 so not a bad run.

My mum's folks are genuine Cockneys who were both born in Canning Town in London. They are probably the nicest people I know even if my nan's cooking is the worst in the world and my grandfather's garage has more crap horded in it than the archive from Indiana Jones, but he can probably fix anything and everything, like most grandfathers like doing. Salt of the Earth people. My grandfather's mum passed recently at 95 and his dad when he was a young man, both Irish, and my grandmother's parents died when she was young. Also Irish.

Also, not really relevant, but my great-great grandfather was murdered coming out of a pub on a few minutes past midnight, 1900. I do believe has was probably one of the first people to be murdered last century, if not the first. Just thought I'd throw that fun fact in there. :)
 
Well, this will be interesting.

My Dad's side.

Grandfather: Seperated from my grandmother long ago and moved to the south island, he worked a few years in the police and on the rail, and then moved away, I've met him twice that I can remember (in 2007, and again last year), and he was nice enough. But other than that, hasn't really been a part of my life at all.

Grandmother: She used to not like me due to the majority of my traits coming from my mum's side (she's gotten over it in recent years :D), did spent time with my siblings and me, but all I can remember was getting sick from her cooking. But she is nice enough.

My mum's side.

Grandfather: Racist, to the point of not hiring someone because of their skin colour, stingy, and many people hate him, but he is nice to the family now that he's gotten old. Probably the grandparent I've seen the most in the last few years, and despite being generally quite a negative person, he still cares about his close family... Just has difficulty showing it.

Grandmother: Kind, and quite caring. The type of grandparent that gives you lollies when you're at their house and is nice to talk to. But as that always goes, she passed away from cancer in 2007. :( The only close family member who has passed away in my memory.

And heritage, history of my family... From what I've learned... Nothing interesting. On my dad's side I think there was someone who was offered to join a band that would eventually hit the big time... But not that big because I don't know who or what band it was. But he later went on and joined a successful jazz band (if I remember correctly). Other than that, I don't really know much. :lol:
 
My grandparents (father side) gave my their Daf 33 to use as a practice tool when I was 6 y.o. .

They let me put dirt on the kitchen table because I wanted to play with my matchbox car and create dirt tracks.



Good grandparents if you aks me.
 
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