I was hoping nobody would notice that slight grammar error…thanks for noticing.
It should have read…Any Of Your Great-Grandparents.
I knew one of my great grandmas, the last time I saw her was in Swift Current, Saskatchewan in 1972 when I was 19.
My great grandmother ‘Granny’ is still living! She’s over 100 and quite senile unfortunately. She has no filter whatsoever and will tell anyone exactly what she thinks. I only have one living grandparent, one died while I was just a baby, one while I was in high school and the other while I was in college.
The only great-grandparent I remember is Antonia, my father’s mother’s mother. We knew her as Grandma Michl, although her last name was actually Wach during the first twelve years of my life (born in 1882, she died in 1971, when I was in seventh grade). Mr. Michl had died long before I was born, and Grandma Michl had married Ernest Wach, who was the widower of one of Antonia’s sisters.
“Uncle Ernest” was quite a character – he had fought for the Kaiser during World War I, then made his way to the Cleveland area, where he became a chauffeur for “Herr Laub”, the head of a major bakery. The only real memory I have of Uncle Ernest is a mental image of showing him a toy mail truck I had just gotten as a Christmas present. According to my Aunt Karen, Uncle Ernest swore by Studebakers (since Herr Laub did) and would pull out into traffic after taking a perfunctory glance at the road and then declaring “Nothing coming! I take a chance!”
As for Grandma Michl, she had come from what is now the Czech Republic, and was most comfortable speaking her native language. She took the “Bohemian paper”, but also peppered her conversation with German words (greeting my siblings and I as kinder (children) when we visited her. Her house had an “old people smell” that was apparently composed of such aromas as the peppermints she kept in a dish and the “snake oil” she used as everything from liniment to gargling solution.
Although she never became fluent in English, she was able to find work as a seamstress at the May Company department store downtown. When I was about five, she gave me a little Cleveland Browns promotional football that her employer was apparently either giving away or selling. She also had an old floor-model radio, and one of my brothers once wondered if we’d hear 1940’s music and news if we turned the radio on.
During World War II, she had owned (after a fashion) a couple of cats that would routinely disappear for weeks, then come back expecting to be fed. She called the cats Hitler and Mussolini because she heard those names, both on the radio and in conversation, all the time. According to my dad and his sisters, the names were appropriate, as the cats were quite hostile to just about everybody.
As many stories as I know about Grandma Michl, I wish she had lived a little longer, so I could have “picked her brain” and seen if she could dredge up any tales I hadn’t already heard.
My adoptive GGparents all died at least 10-15 years before I was born. One of them, a red-headed man on my mom’s side, was apparently quite the character. But when I met my birthmother 13 years ago I had just missed her grandmother, who died c. 1990 at the age of 95 (IIRC).
As far as I know, my dad’s grandparents never left Poland. I’m sure they were dead long before I was born.
Mom’s grandparents were either dead before she was born or died when she was young. I don’t recall her ever talking about them.
My daughter was fortunate enough to know 3 great grandmothers, one great grandfather, and one great grandmother-in-law. Any children she may have won’t know my dad, but so far, all the rest are alive.
I knew my mothers maternal grandmother, and my father’s maternal grandfather.
I THINK I may have met Dad’s maternal grandmother once - I know she didn’t die until a few years before my great-grandfather did - but they were separated (not divorced, she was Catholic) since before I was born, so I never met them. Mom’s grandfather was dead before I was born…so far as I know, anyway.
All 4 of the others were definitely passed before I was born.
I met both my mother’s mother’s mother, and my father’s mother’s mother, but have no real memories of them.
I have some vague memories of my father’s fathers parents, and quite a few pictures of me as a child with them. But none after the age or 4 or 5.
My father’s mother is still alive and kicking at 91, so the Kiddo (10yo) should have plenty of memories of her.
Two great grandmas and one great grandpa.
There were only three grandparents alive by the time I was born, but I had two great-grandparents still living: My maternal grandfather’s parents. His father died when I was eleven, and his mother died four months after he did, when I was 18.
I’m very lucky. I knew 4 of my 8 greatgrandparents, two of them very well.
My mom’s maternal grandparents didn’t die until I was well into my twenties – we were very close, so I got to hear a lot about their parents and grandparents.
My dad’s paternal grandmother never EVER ever discussed the past with anyone EVER, cheated at Canasta, and liked Chinese food.
Dad’s maternal grandmother was very ill, slightly senile, and had gotten a bit mean (understandably) but I was lucky enough to be with her for a few lucid moments, when she’d tell me about my Dad, her childhood and try to teach me to “cuss” in Irish. Saying, in Irish, “the smoke flew up the chimney” is a mildly rude exclamation of frustration/irritation is all I remember of the lessons, unfortunately.
Of the four I didn’t know, two were Grade A assholes whom I don’t regret not knowing, one is a complete mystery, and one had a terrible life but was a sweet loving woman until the day she died, when I was three or four. I vaguely remember sitting on her lap while she fed me cherries. She had a comfortable lap.
Mom has pictures of my maternal grandmother’s paternal grandmother holding me as a baby. She was blind, and felt my face so she could know what I looked like.
No. My oldest relatives that I knew were my grandmothers. My paternal grandmother lived with us; she died when I was 12. My maternal grandmother died when I was 16.
Of 4 grandparents, one died before I was born, I met another one only once when I was 8-ish, and had a see-them-once-a-year relationship with the other two who lived into my late teens.
Of 8 great grandparents, all but one died before I was born. I saw the last exactly one once at her 100th birthday when I was about 6. She didn’t make 101.
I’ve never met most of my aunts, uncles, or cousins, and none of the more distant second cousins, great aunts, etc.
I really can’t imagine what it must be like when people describe having large extended families. Just not part of my reality.
I have very vague memories of visiting one grandparent–my mother’s grandmother–but that’s about it. All I can remember is a pink dress, a sofa, and a wastepaper basket, and some kind of sweets; I must have been really young.
I do remember how I reacted to her death. Mum had told me (very very gently) but I didn’t quite get the concept: I proceeded to make a drawing of myself and my stuffed bear, Mary, underneath the ground of our stick-figure house. :dubious:
All my maternal great-grandparents died before I was born.
On my dad’s side, his father’s parents died before I was born, his mother’s father died when I was 2 or 3, and his mother’s mother was pretty senile by the time I was old enough to have any real memories of her.
So I guess my answer’s no.
My great grandmother lived until just last October; I was 21 when she died. She was 89, born in 1917. I lived with her from ages 15 to 18, and I am glad to have known her. Before that I lived with her sisterr who was born in 1913. They had many interesting stories about their parents and grandparents, her time in high school, etc. I only have two grandparents left now, my mother’s father and my ex-stepfather’s mother.
My father’s grandmother lived to be almost 105. I have a couple of memories of her sitting in the front room of my grandparents house in Kentucy. I was 5 when she died. My grandmother told me one day that she just took a nap during the day and never woke up.
She drew a Civil War widow’s pension from, IIRC, 1917 until her death in 1952. I think it was something like $17 per month.
Dad said she would carry hard candy around in her apron pocket and make sure he and his siblings saw her getting a bit, when they wanted some she wouldn’t share.
I have a couple of pictures of her and gotta say she looks like a mean’un.
I knew both of my dad’s grandmothers; both lived until I was well into grade school.
I can’t say I knew them that well, as I was still quite young and they lived in a different state. Both were immigrants; my (great) Grandma Miriam was Polish, and (great) Grandma Freda was Ukranian. Freda fled the Ukraine in the back of a hay cart right at the turn of the century, pre- revolution.
Both of my grandfathers and all of my great grandparents died before I was born.
Mrs Geek has a picture with 5 generations - Mrs Geek’s great grandmother, her grandmother, her mother, herself, and our daughter.
My great-grandfather died at 103 when I was… 10, I think? Maybe a little older? He was quiet, didn’t know much English, and was a little non-active, but could still get around and stuff on his own. His wife died about five or so years before; I have vague memories of her.
My nephew is currently getting to know both of his great-grandparents. They’re about 90, so I’m hoping that he has a few more years with them still. I’m not at all sure if he’ll have anything he can remember to adulthood like I do, but anything’s possible considering what I mention above. They’re not as energetic as they used to be, of course, but they can do more by themselves than a lot of folks their age can (though my mom looks after them on a regular basis).