September 13, 2009 Happy Grandparent's Day! -

I have five children and one precious grandchild and someday I hope to have lots of grandchildren, but I don’t think I’ll have as many as this weeks “Nana in the News.” A friend saw a newspaper article about her and shared it with me. Gregoria Martinez recently passed away at the age of 94 and she had almost 300 grandchildren!

Ninety-eight were grandchildren; 164 were great-grandchildren and 16 were great-great-grandchildren — all descendants of her own 11 offspring.

That’s without counting her three stepchildren or any of their descendants — or the three great-great grandchildren currently on the way. The family purposely underestimated the total count but felt if all were included it could be as high as 500. Oh my goodness! Can you imagine family get-togethers? You would have to reserve a whole restaurant (and a large one at that). Or sending birthday cards? I can’t keep up with friends and families birthdays now, if I had 300 grandchildren I’d have to categorize them by month and do mass mailings at the first of each month.

Thanks Char, for telling about this weeks “Nana in the News.”

Grandparent Memories in honor of Grandparent’s Day

Here are some comments and quotes about grandparents. I’ll add more as they come in.

“I only have a few memories of grandparents so what I have is very treasured. My paternal grandmother lived near Cleveland, Ohio, and I remember her from visits during the summer on Lake Erie. She had a Cuckoo Clock which I had never seen before. When I visited, the Cuckoo bird would come out and cuckoo. I wish now that I knew whatever happened to that clock.Anytime I see a cuckoo clock, I think of her.

My maternal grandfather lived with us when I was elementary school age. As a young child, I remember sitting with him in his recliner watching wrestling on TV. He was frail and in his 80’s, but he was a large part of my life.

My grandparents died before I could get to know them. I have made sure that my two daughters have every opportunity to know their grandparents and their family lineage.”

Tracy Hardesty Sullivan

“Both of my grandmothers started out as best friends when they were younger and now share grandchildren together.”

Chrissy Standifer

“Both my grandmother’s were gone before I was two- We did visit my grandfather on my fathers side but he was a quiet man and didn’t say much…(don’t think I got that from him) My mother’s father was a farmer and had a hard life so… we never saw him growing up…But I made sure that my children were a part of thier grandparents lives…I guess it was because I always wanted to know mine…I love family, it seems you always want what you don’t have- human nature- no I believe we need to know our family to appreciate where we come from and to be able to pass a since of family onto our children. You never know how many nuts are in your family tree until you shake it…”

Cathy Tench Murdock

“The only grandparent I was blessed to know was Kate Price Bell, my father’s mother. My happiest memory of her is as a wonderful cook; Sunday dinners for the whole family, with men served at the first sitting, then the women if there were too ma…ny for them to be served at the first table, and children last….how would THAT work today??? But the strongest memory is of her “Teacakes”…they were a type of sugar cookie which she iced with cooked white or caramel icing (no confectioners’ sugar, thank you!). They were lighter than air, and such a delicate flavor; every daughter and daughter-in-law tried to make them like her, at her direction, but no one mastered them. A lost art.”

Mary Alice Yokley

QUOTES about Grandparents

A garden of Love grows in a Grandmother’s heart.
— Author Unknown

A grandma’s name is little less in love than is the doting title of a mother.
— William Shakespeare

A grandmother is a babysitter who watches the kids instead of the television.
— Author Unknown

A grandmother is a little bit parent, a little bit teacher, and a little bit best friend.
— Author Unknown

A grandmother is a mother who has a second chance.
— Author Unknown

A Grandmother is a safe haven.
— Suzette Haden Elgin

A Grandmother is a special person who causes a joyful happening in the heart of a child.
— Author Unknown

A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween.
— Erma Bombeck

A house needs a grandma in it.
— Louisa May Alcott

An hour with your grandchildren can make you feel young again. Anything longer than that, and you start to age quickly.
— Gene Perret

Becoming a grandmother is wonderful. One moment you’re just a mother. The next you are all-wise and prehistoric.
— Pam Brown

Being pretty on the inside means you don’t hit your brother and you eat all your peas – that’s what my grandma taught me.
— Lord Chesterfield

By the time the youngest children have learned to keep the house tidy, the oldest grandchildren are on hand to tear it to pieces.
— Christopher Morley

Few things are more delightful than grandchildren fighting over your lap.
— Doug Larson

Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old.
— Mary H. Waldrip

Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation.
— Lois Wyse

Grandchildren don’t stay young forever, which is good because Pop-pops have only so many horsey rides in them.
— Gene Perret

Grandma always made you feel she had been waiting to see just you all day and now the day was complete.
— Marcy DeMaree

Grandma’s kitchen…kids eat free.
— Author Unknown

Grandmas are moms with lots of frosting.
— Author Unknown

Grandmas hold our tiny hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever.
— Author Unknown

Grandmas never run out of hugs or cookies.
— Author Unknown

Grandmother – a wonderful mother with lots of practice.
— Author Unknown

Grandmothers are just “antique” little girls.
— Author Unknown

Grandmother-grandchild relationships are simple. Grandmas are short on criticism and long on love.
— Author Unknown

Grandparents are a delightful blend of laughter, caring deeds, wonderful stories and Love.
— Author Unknown

Grandparents are similar to a piece of string – handy to have around and easily wrapped around the fingers of their grandchildren.
— Author Unknown

Grandparents are there to help the child get into mischief they haven’t thought of yet.
— Gene Perret

I like to do nice things for my grandchildren – like buy them those toys I’ve always wanted to play with.
— Gene Perret

I loved their home. Everything smelled older, worn but safe; the food aroma had baked itself into the furniture.
— Susan Strasberg

I’m the twinkle in my Grandpa’s eye…
— Author Unknown

If becoming a grandmother was only a matter of choice, I should advise every one of you straight away to become one. There is no fun for old people like it!
— Hannah Whithall Smith

If nothing is going well, call your grandmother.
— Italian Proverb

If your baby is “beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time,” you’re the grandma.
— Teresa Bloomingdale

It is as grandmothers that our mothers come into the fullness of their grace.
— Christopher Morley

It’s amazing how grandparents seem so young once you become one.
— Author Unknown

It’s such a grand thing to be a mother of a mother – that’s why the world calls her grandmother.
— Author Unknown

Just about the time a woman thinks her work is done, she becomes a grandmother.
— Edward H. Dreschnack

My grandchild has taught me what true love means. It means watching Scooby-Doo cartoons while the basketball game is on another channel.
— Gene Perret

My grandfather was a wonderful role model. Through him I got to know the gentle side of men.
— Sarah Long

No cowboy was ever faster on the draw than a grandparent pulling a baby picture out of a wallet.
— Author Unknown

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.
— Alex Haley

One of the most powerful handclasps is that of a new grandbaby around the finger of a grandfather.
— Joy Hargrove

Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends – and hardly ever our own grown children.
— Ruth Goode

Surely, two of the most satisfying experiences in life must be those of being a grandchild or a grandparent.
— Donald A. Norberg

The handwriting on the wall means the grandchildren found the crayons.
— Author Unknown

The idea that no one is perfect is a view most commonly held by people with no grandchildren.
— Doug Larson

The reason grandchildren and grandparents get along so well is that they have a common enemy.
— Sam Levenson

There’s no place like home except Grandma’s.
— Author Unknown

They say genes skip generations. Maybe that’s why grandparents find their grandchildren so likeable.
— Joan McIntosh

To show a child what has once delighted you, to find the child’s delight added to your own, so that there is now a double delight seen in the glow of trust and affection, this is happiness.
— J.B. Priestley

Uncles and aunts, and cousins, are all very well, and fathers and mothers are not to be despised; but a grandmother, at holiday time, is worth them all.
— Fanny Fern

We should all have one person who knows how to bless us despite the evidence, Grandmother was that person to me.
— Phyllis Theroux

What a bargain grandchildren are! I give them my loose change, and they give me a million dollars’ worth of pleasure.
— Gene Perret

What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies.
— Rudolph Giuliani

What is it about grandparents that is so lovely? I’d like to say that grandparents are God’s gifts to children. And if they can but see, hear and feel what these people have to give, they can mature at a fast rate.
— Bill Cosby

When a child is born, so are grandmothers.
— Judith Levy