The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsDid you have a "Gramma?"
Not a grandmother, someone you loved as "Gramma."
This was my Gramma, my Mom's mother.
We loved her so much, and she fell, hitting her head which gave her a cerebral hemmorage, that she died of, in 1989.
I was reminded of this hearing of California's Peggy's fall.
Stay well and hope you heal up quickly, Peggy. We all love you.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Get well soon California Peggy!
femmocrat
(28,394 posts)I had two wonderful grandmothers. We called one Granma and the other one Mumma. I was fortunate that we lived near them and saw them often, growing up. We had a big family with lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. It was a lovely childhood.
My real name is a combination of their two names.
pipi_k
(21,020 posts)My father's mom ended up leaving him when he was five years old (I only just found out why a few years ago) in 1930. He never met her until a few months before she died in the early 1980s. I never met her at all.
His stepmom was a good lady. We called her "Meme". She treated us kids the same as her biological childrens' kids.
My mother's mom died at the age of 33 or so, when I was just 3 months old. She also had a stepmom... we called her Anna (that was her name). She was gruff and rather loud/scary.
I now have three grandkids of my own and one step grandchild. I am "Nanny"
PS...I'm sorry for your loss, and I too hope California Peggy is feeling lots better soon.
Bjornsdotter
(6,123 posts)I had a Gram, a farmor & a mormor.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)My great grandmother was short, hence her name. It sounds mocking but there was not the least disrespect in all who called her that, though she spoke mostly Russian and I doubt she ever took a slight.
Archae
(46,327 posts)She's 5 foot nothing, and they are 5 foot 8 and 6 foot even, like me.
Mom gets a kick out of the kidding around, though.
I tease my Mom when I'm at her place and she asks me to reach for stuff she can't.
"How come Mom, I have no trouble reaching the top shelfs and you do?"
"Oh you be quiet you tall drink of water."
HeiressofBickworth
(2,682 posts)was my Gramma. We lived in the same town in Indiana until I was 10 and then we moved to the Seattle area. I saw her often before we moved. I didn't see her again until she was 92 (she died at 96) when I went back to Indiana for a visit. I was not particularly close to her. She was getting a little fuzzy around the edges when I went to visit and didn't remember me right off. When I reminded her of her childhood name for me, it all came back.
My father's mother died long before I was born. His step-mother was a very tall and elegant woman and I called her Grandmother R____. I hardly knew her at all.
Before my Granddaughter was born, my son-in-law's mother called me. She said that we had to decide, as grandmothers, what the child would call us. She was very insistent about this while I hadn't given it any thought at all. She demanded that she be called Nana -- since I didn't care, I told her she could have it and i would be something else. My granddaughter calls me Gramma or sometimes, when she is feeling flip, she calls me G-Ma.
Good Vibes to CalPeg.
MADem
(135,425 posts)They lived to ripe old ages, which was good as my parents weren't terribly young when they married.
I was very lucky.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)Beatrice McKeating came over from County Cork in Ireland with her sister (they were 2 of 12 kids) in 1900.
I loved Grandma Bea and I loved her brogue and I loved the fact that she was an expert seamstress and supervisor of seamstresses, whose skills were so prized that her former employer begged her repeatedly to come back from her retirement.
Grandma Bea was a great teacher, too. When we took walks around the block in Chicago when I was but a little kid, she'd explain to me that, no, I couldn't piss on the trees like we did when we rented a cabin up at the lake in Wisconsin. I learned my lesson from Grandma Bea. To this day, I no longer go around pissing on my neighbors' trees. As tempting as that is at times...
GreenPartyVoter
(72,377 posts)benld74
(9,904 posts)dis not know their grandparents either. Now my older sister is making up fr my deficiency though as they have 11 grandkids.
a la izquierda
(11,795 posts)and my grandma, or Gigi as my niece and nephews call her, is still kicking at 85. I even knew two of my great-grandmas for 20 years of my life.
handmade34
(22,756 posts)...stoic and grumpy and mean and strict and I didn't realize how much of an impact she had on my life until she was gone. She was often my only rock in the troubled world I lived in when I was young.
My Grandfather drowned in Lake Champlain (near Burlington) after my father was just born and she had to go to Michigan to live at the newly opened home for widows and orphans of WWII (VFW Children's Home). She became a 'housemother' (up to 10 kids) and was a very good one until she retired 40+ years later...
ahhh memories
geardaddy
(24,931 posts)They were both ok. The only "Granpa" I remember was scary and mean.