Create Challenge May 2022: Grandparents
Created | Updated 3 Weeks Ago
Grandparental Guidance
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FWR's Create Entry resonated with me in many ways, as I didn't know much about my grandparents as people before they had gone. My dad's parents had died when he was quite young, before he met my mum, so I never knew them, but we all spent quite a bit of time with my maternal grandparents in the 1980s. We regularly visited each other's houses, they sometimes stayed at our house, and we went on holiday with them a few times, too.
I did know my grandad had served as a radio officer in the Merchant Navy during World War II. He didn't tell me much about that time, but my favourite memory of him is when I was given an electronics kit for my birthday, and we worked on it together. Even his engineering skills couldn't get the crystal radio working, but we did manage to make a Morse Code machine. I tapped out a bit of Morse Code, in the way I thought it should be done based on TV programmes I had seen, and he said, 'Can you try again, but make the dots a bit shorter and the dashes a bit longer?' Thus he gave me great appreciation of the skill involved in seemingly simple things.
Apart from one time when my grandma told me some details about her life in boarding school when she was seven, it was only after she had gone that I learned she had had more of a challenging life than I had realised. She was attacked by her employer when she was 'in service' as a maid and that took its toll on her mental health in later life so she occasionally spent time in hospital. She also faced challenges in Liverpool during World War II, with its bombing raids, rationing and the need to look after her family while her husband was away at sea. In retrospect I like to think her grandchildren helped her to feel better about herself - certainly she helped me with my mental health when I had asthma and was worried about stopping breathing in the night, as she sat with me and comforted me when I needed it.
My grandma also taught me a lot - she helped me to learn how to knit and crochet, and we also played card games and computer games together. We also introduced each other to our favourite music - she didn't become a fan of Queen, and I didn't become a fan of Ken Dodd, but we both learned something from listening to something new.
No matter how long I knew each of my grandparents, they all contributed to who I am today, whether indirectly through my parents, or directly through meeting me, and I appreciate that.
