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What are your grandparents like?

Doctor Q

Doctor Q

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Original poster
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
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Los Angeles
What are your grandparents (however many you have) like?

Are they old-fashioned? With-it? Feisty? Refined? Boring? Good story tellers? Technophobic? Cheerful? Grumpy? Somebody you confide in? Fun to visit with? All of the above?

You aren't limited to adjectives. Tell us what they are like or which is your favorite.
 
Thankfullyu all of mine are still alive. None of them know anything about technology apart from their TVs. They tend to be kind natured (i say tend because one used to be an evil witch but had a stroke and this caused a personality change).
They all live the typical "old" things like flower arranging, doing puzzles etc and are fairly boring as they have told all of their stories at least 3 times and the one who had a stroke calls up about the same things about 4 times a day. Drives my mum insane :p
 
Both my grandfathers were dead before I was born (well one died in 71 or 72 when I was two or so, but yeah, I never knew them).

My dad's mother was, well, weird. What I remember about her from when she lived with us was lots of Benson and Hedges and lots of Black Label. She was very loving and quiet, though. God did she love her some soap operas.

I was extremely tight with my mom's mom. What an intelligent, inspiring, strong and wonderful woman. It's a shame more of my cousins didn't stay in touch with her over the last 15 years or so. She died two weeks after my dad last fall. She was 96. I really do miss her - she was so similar to my mother.

I loved me some grandma Kay. :)
 
jamone80 said:
wish i knew them. :(
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actually, i kinda know my grandma (mom's side). but from what i remember, she just annoyed me cause she would try to baby me. no offense to people's grandparents, but after 15yrs of never really being around old people i realize that i dont have much patience for them..:eek:
 
Dead! - Thanks for making me feel like crap! :eek:

No - I'm just kidding. I never met my grand parents on my Moms side. My mom tells me that her father was a good man but that her mother was an evil Biatch! So no loss there.

On my Dad side, my grand parents are very old and very cool. There very good grandparents. Very loving and I of course am their favorite grandchild. :)

I am a little worried though, my grandfather has parkinsons and his is getting really bad. I am afraid that someday I will get it too. He is 89 and my grandmother is 80 I think. I don't get to see them very often though because the live in another country.
 
All dead.

Of the 4, 3 were really good, amazing people. The 4th was bastard, that left a mess that is causing much pain and grief to my mum almost 3 years after his death, that we're still trying to resolve.

So I hope the bastard is rotting in hell. Not that I believe in hell sadly, but you get my drift.
 
Mom's dad -- passed away
Mom's mom -- passed away
Dad's dad -- passed away
Dad's mom -- alive, if you can call it that

My last living grandparent has essentially wasted the last 15 years of her life. It's a pretty sad situation. She's in decent health, but she simply chooses not to be active. Doesn't drive, doesn't go out except for to the doctors, Wal-mart occasionally, and out to dinner when we go for her birthday. She's spaced out, doesn't know what's going on half the time...you take her out and she looks around like she's from another planet. She's lived with my parents ever since I was born, which is also really bad. My mom can't do anything about it, and my dad won't do anything about it. He's got two brothers -- one who would take her if he could, but his situation doesn't allow for it, and one who apparently doesn't give a s***. It'd be nice if my mom could spend (and again, sorry if this sounds morbid) the remainder of her life without her mother-in-law living with her.
 
on my dad's side- grandpa was dead long before i was born. he was a drunk and a bit of a deadbeat. step grandpa was weird, but decent. grandma suffers from bad arthritis, is wheelchair bound (and has been since as long as i can remember), but she's pretty there mentally. that doesn't mean she's not crazy, cause she is. she thinks i look like jfk jr and should be entitled to the family name. hah

on my mom's side- both grandparents are awesome. grandma is losing memory and has to ask our names all the time. she weighs 12 pounds and smokes cigarettes and eats oreos all day. my grandpa is freaking awesome. he loves everyone, and lets them know it, even if they just met him, or are waiting his table at a restaurant. as such an emotional dude, he cries a lot (with joy mostly). he's had prostate cancer, brain surgery, and he's still doing well. he's the man.
 
One of my great sadnesses is that I never met any of them - they all died before I was born.
 
My dad's parents are/were quite traditional, and my granny (my grandad died when I was about 6 or so) is very much a traditional granny type, and has been for as long as I can remember, even though when I was little she was probably only the age my parents are now. She's really nice though, but I don't feel I have an awful lot in common with her.

My mum's dad died before I was born, and he sounded like a great bloke and I'm sad I never got the chance to meet him. Consequently, my granny's been on her own for what must be more than 30 years now, and she's great. She's had a lot more health problems than my other granny, yet still goes for long walks by herself, goes to lectures, concerts, paints and is really interested in all sorts of things, and I really enjoy spending time with her. She's a bit of an inspiration, really. :eek:
 
its kinda weird when i think about it, i'm not afraid of dying as much as i am of getting old. and when i mean old, i mean like 80s and up...to the point where i "cant" or "wont" do anything...this thread is depressing. :(
 
Have two real grandmas, one step-granddad and I had another granddad who past away a few years ago.

My single grandma is physically not really able to do much, but has a clear mind and is a bit old-fashioned.

But my other grandparents are quite young compared to others and very open-minded. Physically very able and they are totally with me. In fact they are the closest relatives I have.

They are simple-minded, but e.g. they respect, that I smoke and "smoke", they wouldn't mind if I would turn gay and they:

oma.jpg

EDIT: If you check my blog you will find some pictures of me and my grandparents. We went to Wales two weeks ago.
 
spicyapple said:
This is a depressing thread. :(
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I'll fix that.

I'm down to one set of grandparents, but they are both awesome. They are both 100% italian, and it shows (grandma is like 5 feet tall now :)), and are both in pretty good shape health-wise. I moved to my current location last year, and my apartment, coincidentally, happens to share a wall w/ a deli that they used to own. They no longer own it, but still work there every day. So every morning I wake up, go outside, go back inside, and hang out with them for a little bit before going to work. :) And they also live only 10 blocks away, so I'll stop by once in awhile to see whats going on- always wind up staying there for a couples hours watching some old movie (that always winds up being awesome- movies today suck!) that they were watching. Good times!



Tymmz said:
They are simple-minded, but e.g. they respect, that I smoke and "smoke", they wouldn't mind if I would turn gay and they:

View attachment 59309
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And that picture is fantastic! My grandparents get exctited whenever I bring my laptop over- I recently measured/drew their house in AutoCad and we are going to build them a litte addition- they thought it was the coolest thing seeing their house drawn on a computer. :)
 
iKWICK7 said:
I'll fix that.
I'm down to one set of grandparents, but they are both awesome. They are both 100% italian, and it shows (grandma is like 5 feet tall now :)), and are both in pretty good shape health-wise. I moved to my current location last year, and my apartment, coincidentally, happens to share a wall w/ a deli that they used to own. They no longer own it, but still work there every day. So every morning I wake up, go outside, go back inside, and hang out with them for a little bit before going to work. :) And they also live only 10 blocks away, so I'll stop by once in awhile to see whats going on- always wind up staying there for a couples hours watching some old movie (that always winds up being awesome- movies today suck!) that they were watching. Good times!
Click to expand...

That's really cool :)

On a side note, my girlfriend is 5' and she's only 27...should I be worried ;)
 
All of mine are still living, and I knew 3 of my great-grandparents.

Mom's side are pretty cool, down-to-earth, nice people. Dad's side are interesting. :eek:
 
My parents are old though.. about the age of everyone's grandparents (everyone who is my age).. Does that count?
 
Grandfather on Dad's side: Raging alcoholic, ex-Navy, beat all the children. When finally getting his life straight and sobering up, he was killed by a drunk driver. Talk about irony. He died when my father was 15.

Grandmother on Dad's side: Very manipulative and takes abuse from my uncle Steve, whom my father and uncle Paul kicked the hell out of about 10 years ago for it....

Grandfather on Mother's side: Alcoholic. Fought against the SS Nazi division in WWII. Work-a-holic. hunter. Farmer. Racist.

Grandmother on mother's side: Very kind, yet frugal. Antique dealer and collector. Can be a real bitch when she hasn't had a nap.
 
May I join the weepfest?

Had all four of mine until the age of 11. My father's mother went first from a heart attack. It was on the first anniversary of my Uncle's (Dad's younger brother) death also from a heart attack. Not the best of days :(

Next my mother's father died, only about six months later. He'd been out gardening all morning, went upstairs to wash his hands and died of a stroke at the top of the stairs. He is the one I really wish I'd had the chance to have a proper conversation with in adulthood. I always worry that he didn't think very much of me as a child, but I like to think he would have been proud of me now given the chance.

Mother's mother eventually ended up in a nursing home due to severe osteoporosis of the spine, and sadly died about ten years later. I saw her about four days before she died and it was obvious she didn't have long. Although it was extremely upsetting, I am very glad I had the chance to say goodbye.

Father's father is very much alive and spends all his time on coach holidays with his second wife, whom he married when I was seventeen. He gets rather emotional whenever he sees us and tells us all frequently how much he loves us. He's now 84 and has occasional health problems, but makes the most of life. Scarily enough, photographs of him at my age look eerily similar to me, so I guess I have a good idea of what I'm going to look like should I live that long :)
 
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