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Mom:
I don't know anything about my mom's mom except that she left my grandfather when my mom was 3 and died of cancer before I was born. My mom didn't really have a relationship with her because she never really had a chance to develop one.
My mom's dad was an abusive asshole and did the world a favor when he died 3 years ago. Sounds insensitive, but after what he did to his kids, it's not.
Dad:
My grandmother was raised on the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma until she and her mother moved to California in her early teens. I really don't know that much about her younger years, and she never worked that I'm aware of. She married my grandfather in her early 20's and had ten children with him. She was a typical wife of the time...took care of the kids, did what her husband asked, and kept a comfortable home. She was stunningly beautiful when she was younger and I love looking at old pictures of her. I'll never understand what she saw in my grandfather. She was married to my grandfather for 50 something years, and after he died was reunited online with a high school boyfriend and got remarried. She loves the outdoors, traveled a lot when she was younger, and is one of the sweetest and most upbeat people I've ever known.
My grandfather was born and raised in California, and was the son of a very successful plumber. During the Depression he worked on a farm and as part of his pay, received a watermelon every day for lunch. He married my grandmother right before WWII, and then went off to fight. He was wounded on D-Day...he caught some shrapnel and lay on the beach all day until the medics could get to him. He also served and was wounded in Korea. He retired after 25 years of service and settled his family in California. He got a civil service job after that, working at the post office. He was a very domineering man and never got along well with any of his sons, and I think that set the tone for the way I felt about him in my later years. I loved him because he was my grandfather, but he wasn't a man that I'd want to know otherwise. He died in 1999 after a series of strokes; he was 80.
I was never close to my grandparents, because I never considered having any on my mom's side, and my dad's parents always lived far away from us. I was always envious of people who had close relationships with their grandparents.
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"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"
Formerly Medusa
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