My maternal grandfather died just a few days after I was born. My maternal grandmother helped raise me & died in my senior year of high school. (He was apparently quite a character & I’ve wondered how they got together.)
My paternal grandfather died when my father was young. My paternal grandmother, in my early 20’s. Only met her a few times; my father died when I was 4 & we were raised in Texas, not his home state.
Anyone with living grandparents–sit them down with the photo albums & ask who those people were!
8 years old.
My mom’s dad.
The only grandparent who did not die before I was born.
Obviously, I missed out on the whole grandparent thing I hear so much about, good and/or bad.
My paternal grandfather, the bigamist, died when I was about 4. I had only met him once due to, you know, the bigamy. He had colon cancer. When my dad told me he had died I didn’t care but at least knew enough to give my dad a hug.
My maternal grandfather, who had been a great guy till the bad health got him died when I was 12. He was 64 but died the death of an old man due to congestive heart failure.
My maternal grandmother, who once bitchily said she didn’t support Ted Kennedy because she didn’t want to pay for other people’s health care because she only went to the doctor’s when she was sick died of diabetes complications that might have been avoided if she’d been diagnosed about ten years earlier. I was 23, she was 73.
My paternal grandmother, who had been very heavy and smoked like a chimney until 10 years before he death, died at 86, 4 days before the birth of my son when I was 35. I went into labor at her funeral. There is some controversy over the reason she died. Now, five weeks earlier, she had been in a car accident and broken her neck (but not her spinal column). She died of pneumonia, but why? Was it some residue of her injury? Or was it because, in the months before her accident she had been been dropping weight like crazy and sleeping round the clock and, it turned out, had a tumor on a kidney? My dad, who is 71, is still her little boy and prefers to believe it’s because she bought a non-Toyota without his help. I think she was old and sick.
My son, lucky bastard, has 5 grandparents, all alive and kicking.
My mother’s parents were both dead before I was born. My father’s parents died when I was 5 or so; and since they lived 500 miles away, I have only the flimsiest of memories of them.
Paternal Grandfather - Died when I was 20
Paternal Grandmother - Died roughly 5 years before I was born
Maternal Grandfather - Died when my mom was 8
Maternal Step-Grandfather - died when I was 23 (He was my grandfather in every way except biology)
Maternal Grandmother - Still going strong (I’m 33)
(My maternal Grandmother is 85 and is now a great-great grandmother to a beautiful 1 year old boy)
My maternal grandma died of a sudden heart attack when I was 7. I used to spend weekends with her in the old family house. We would take long walks together and she’d tell me incredible stories about my mother, uncles, and all the people who used to live in the neighborhood.
I didn’t know my paternal grandma very well. She lived in another state, and we saw her maybe twice a year. She died when I was 9.
Still got one at 33–but she’s in less than great health, phsyically and especially mentally.
Lost the paternal grandfather unexpectedly at 10, the maternal grandfather at less unexpectedly at 12, and the maternal grandmother semi-unexpectedly at 32.
(That would be sudden heart attack, died in sleep after surgery related to Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and died of a stroke after spending most of a month in the hospital due to a fall, if you are wondering how I estimate the unexpectedness of my grandparent’s deaths.)
45 here, both my maternal adoptive grandmother and my maternal birth grandmother (I’m adopted, found my birth mother 10 years ago) are in their mid 90’s. Lost everybody else (adoptive side) in the early 70’s tho, when I was 11-13. I missed meeting my birth mother’s grandmother by about 10 years (she lived to be 99).
So it looks like I hold the current record in this thread!
I am 28 and I still have my maternal grandmother. She’s 92 and we are very lucky - she’s actually in independent living and she’s perfectly sharp, can’t hear worth a damn but sees fine. Uses just a walker.
I never knew my father’s father, his mother died when I was a teenager, and my mom’s dad died just a couple years ago. We were very close.
ETA - the woman is SO sharp that she doesn’t just remember your birthday and send you a card, she sends you a card so that you always get it on your birthday. She accounts for mail holidays and such.
I was extremely lucky.
Paternal grandfather died when I was 6, he was 72.
Paternal great-grandmother died when I was 12, she was 83.
Maternal grandfather when I was 33, he was 88.
Paternal grandmother when I was 40, she was 90.
Maternal grandmother when I was 41, she was 93.
My kids actually got to know all four of their grandparents (all still alive and active), the three great-grandparents on my side and two great-grandmothers from my wife’s side. My wife’s one grandmother is still alive but is in a nursing facility with severe Alzheimer’s. For a 99 year old woman she is extremely healthy but she isn’t there mentally any more.
My paternal grandmother died before I was born, and my paternal grandfather died a few days after my first birthday. I have a picture of him holding me, but no recollection of him at all.
My maternal grandfather died when I was in college; the exact year eludes me, but I believe it was 1971 or 72, which meant I was 18 or 19. I believe he was in his early 70s.
My maternal grandmother died in 1985, when I was 32 and she was in her mid-80s. My mother died a year later at 57, and my father died three weeks ago at 76.
Late January is not a good time for me; my grandmother, mother, mother’s sister (I was very close to her), and my wife all died within a calender week of each other.
I only recently lost my last greatgrandparent and with exception to my mom’s dad, who killed himself before children were even a thought in my mother’s mind and whom I obviously never met, I still have all my grandparents. My grandparents are coming up on their 80s and my son’s almost five, so I hope they hold out long enough that he’ll have memories of his great grandparents after they’re gone.
He already lost his paternal grandfather but both of my parents are still young (53 and 48) so I expect him to have at least a couple grandparents around long into adulthood.
My paternal grandmother died when I was about 22. I didn’t know her well (she lived in Florida and I was in PA) but I do have memories of her.
My maternal grandmother died when I was 4. She lived in Ohio with my aunt, and was bedridden (I think she’d had a stroke) so I have only one very vague memory of her.
My paternal grandfather died about 5 years before I was born. My maternal grandfather died 10ish years before I was born (my mother was not yet married when he died).
Paternal Grandfather when I was six.
Paternal Great-Grandmother when I was also six (she was the same height that I was!).
Maternal Grandpa when I was 32
Maternal Grandma when I was 33
Paternal Grandmother when I was 40.
Everyone except my Grandfather lived to be older than 85, he died at 65 and my Grandmother never remarried.
My paternal Grandmother died when I was 2. She had cancer.
My Paternal Grandfather died before I was born and when my mother was 10.
My Maternal Grandmother died when I was 20. She had Alzheimer’s brought on by meds.
My Maternal Grandfather died when I was 12. He died of lung cancer. He was 75
Lost my paternal grandmother when I was 10 (complecations from hip surgery) she was in her seventies.
Lost my maternal grandfather when I was 16 (heart problems), he was in his seventies, also.
Lost my paternal grandfather when I was 22 (too many strokes), he was mostly gone a few years before, but he was 93.
Lost my maternal grandmother’s second husband when I was 31 (stomach cancer), he was 92, but doesn’t count. (I left the house to go on our 10th anniversary vacation, missing the call that he was in the hospital, on our way back, I called my parents and found out he had died the previous morning).
My maternal grandmother is still doing well, but her eyesight and hearing is going. She won’t make left turns anymore, and it won’t be long until my parents make her stop driving. She will turn 93 this year.
Hey, me and twix win, with a decade or less total years of grandparents!
Yippee!
Now I thought my kids were luckier than me, because they have memories of all 4 GPs. By now my Ps are both dead, and my in-laws are a lying scumbag we have no contact with, and an unreliable, irresponsible ditz. Sometimes I think I was lucky!
