Grandma with her Mickey Mouse Ears on.
My grandma ..... I grew up calling her MAM. When we were out anywhere and I would say "Hey Mam" every lady in the room would look.
My Grandparents took legal guardianship of me when I was very young. They not only raised their 3 kids, but raised me later on in their lives. My grandfather passed away several years ago, due to complicatons from diabetes, and my grandmother has recently remarried. She lives in the beautiful mountains of Pennsylvania and has lived in the same area all her life.
She dropped out of 10th grade to marry and raise a family. And my grandfather dropped out of 11th grade to marry, later in life he got his GED and went on to do alot of schooling again and became a paramedic for several years. Before that he worked in the coal mines for years before developing Black Lung, then drove the school bus many years and worked at the ski resort. I can remember riding the school bus with him before I was even in school, he would always take me with him to work, whether on the bus or at the ski resort. He grew up in a very large family and had 12 brothers and sisters. It is funny, cause none of them go by their birth name (Bertha = Janie, Helen = Sis, then there is Monk, Joe, Super, Butch, etc.)
All my life my grandma has been the hardest working person I know. Just ask anyone who knows her and they will agree. She is now 76 years old. I can remember watching her "hand wash" clothes sometimes. Oh yeah, she had a washer, that is just her nature to do things THE HARD WAY. Laundry is still hung outside on the line to dry, and when weather does not permit, she has a line in the basement to hang them on. Yes, she does have a dryer, but rarely uses it. She had a green thumb, our house was always full of beautiful plants. Her personality is always encouraging, head strong, ALWAYS right, and very big on manners (no elbows on table, please and thank you, chew with your mouth closed) and she is not afraid to tell a stranger what she thinks. And cleanliness is a must with her. When she comes to visit my mother and I in Illinois, she will spend her time cleaning both our houses, even if we spent the last month cleaning every inch before she came. She is a very determined person, when I was young and starting to write with my left hand, she was determined I was going to be right handed and constantly switched things to my right hand, and she did turn me into a right hander. She was determined to have me potty trained at just a year old and she did (or so she says, I still have trouble believing it, especially after raising 3 of my own kids). She was determined to make a good life for me and she did. She loves to knit and sew, but cannot do it much anymore because of arthritis. She made all my barbie dolls outfits. I have many afgan blankets she has knitted me and the kids over the years.
She has 6 brothers and 1 sister and she grew up on the farm. One of her brothers still lives on that farm, and I got to spend some time on that farm too. Every day she had to help milk the cows before and after school, and yes, she did have to walk a long distance to school. She did alot of the cooking for her large family too. That is how I think she became such an awesome cook. Almost everything is made from scratch when she cooks. She just retired this year from a ski resort where she was a chef. But she has not retired from cleaning the house of the owners of the ski resort. She spends 2 days a week cleaning this massive house with 9 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms, and a walk in cooler. She has done this for as long as I can remember. The owners have 9 daughters. Can you imagine, they needed those 9 bathrooms. Over the years they have been very generous to my grandmother. For only having a 10th grade education, she did very well in her life. She has spent the last several years traveling the globe, going to Germany, and all over the U.S. and on a cruise. She said she has worked hard all her life and is going to enjoy it now. I am so glad to see her finally retire from a full time job at 76. My first job was working with her in the kitchen where she was chef. She did not take it easy on me at all.
I do not know anyone who does their spring cleaning 2 times a year, but she does. I asked her once if she enjoyed cleaning so much....."YES, I do", she said.
She was always involved in something. My grandfather was a member of the volunteer fire department and they had a ladies auxilary, in which she was a member of. They were always having fund raisers. She also was a member of her church ladies missionary group.
Growing up in my grandparents home was interesting. We lived right beside the fire department and since my grandfather was on the fire dept., we had the fire phone in our house....the red rotary wall phone....that I was not allowed to touch. Oh, I love to tell this story....my grandmother has false teeth and one day her teeth were bothering her so she took them out and placed them on top of a pile of folded towels she was going to put away in the linen closet. After finishing laundry and putting the towels away, she went to go brush her teeth, but could not find them. . . . . after searching for SEVERAL DAYS, I opened the linen closet and spotted her teeth laying on top of the towels. lol. I can remember when I was 5 years old we took a trip to Niagra Fall and when we got there, they realized they forgot my luggage and I got a whole new wardrobe. When we got home from vacation, there was my luggage sitting at the bottom of the steps. They also took me to Disney World in grade school and we spent almost every summer at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina or Ocean City, Maryland. This past January, she took me and my family all back to Disney World. I don't get to see her much anymore since we live 600 miles apart, but she will always be close to my heart.
Grandma with Nic at Epcot
Grandma at Epcot.
4 generations....picutre was taken at Epcot. My mom, grandma, Megan, Malia, Me and Nic
My mom and grandma at our hotel in Disney.
Grandma and Gerald (her new husband) getting a hug from Piglet at the Magic Kingdom.
