FAMOUS GRANDMOTHERS

 

Probably the most loved grandmother photo of our time.

What did you call your grandmother? Grandma, Gramma, Granny, Mimi, Oma, Mima, Abuela,

Grand-mère, Obaasan, Nana, Nona, Bobe?  My granddaughters call me Grammy.

If you were from a very large family, you were often just one of the bunch of kids running around at any family gathering. Grandmothers didn’t usually show favorites on those occasions. But get her alone? Ah, that was different. You’d get a body hug as she held you close to her aproned side and touched your head or gently tugged on your ear.

Grandmother memories are, for many of us, some of the “comfort food” of our adult lives. We remember her and we try to pass on her love.

Grandmothers were usually great cooks – at least in our memories. You might still cherish that recipe for her meat loaf that she hand-wrote for you when you were first cooking on your own. You might even be wearing her wedding ring, or keep something treasured that she passed down to you. What she passed on to you might be the craft or pastime, perhaps knitting or baking, that you enjoy today.

Did your grandmother ever come out with something that just floored you? As you both got older, did she hand out a bit of necessary tough love? She had to keep you in line, and who better to do it than a “been there, done that” savvy gal.

Did you know that some of our more famous and most cherished American notables were raised, for a time or for almost their whole childhoods, by their grandmothers? Count among them Presidents Obama and Clinton, and Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Willie Nelson, and Carol Burnett (Remember her tugging on her ear at the end of her show? That was a signal to her grandmother.)

There are many prominent women today who are not often thought of, first and foremost, as grandmothers. There are many more than you’d imagine, and included in their ranks are Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton among the prominent American families, and celebrities like Martha Stewart, Naomi Judd, Sally Field, and Sophia Loren. Let’s not forget Queen Elizabeth II and Barbara Bush who are mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. 

Telling her grandmother her tale of woe.

Here are several quick quotes by and about grandmothers:

A house needs a grandma in it. 
Louisa May Alcott 

A grandmother is a little bit parent, a little bit teacher, and a little bit best friend 
Author Unknown 

A grandmother pretends she doesn't know who you are on Halloween. 
Erma Bombeck 

There's no place like home except Grandma's. 
Author Unknown 

If I had known how wonderful it would be to have grandchildren, I'd have had them first. 
Lois Wyse