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Elsie (Taylor) (Fountain) Paine, 1999 -- the last time I saw her
Copyright Diane L Richard
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FamilySearch
is launching a campaign tomorrow to collect stories about grandmothers (see the
full announcement below).
I did not interact much with either
of my grandmothers – my maternal one lived in England
and my paternal one in Virginia (though it might
as well have been England). We lived in Connecticut.
Their personalities could not have
been more different. One was quite
tolerant in many regards and the other quite critical. I wish I could say that I have fond memories
of both, and if I dig deeply enough, that is true. I did enjoy some good times with both and I
can say that I learned lessons from both.
From my paternal grandmother I learned more about the person I didn’t
want to be and from my maternal grandmother I learned, as a teenager, to trust
who I was.
Though I only saw my maternal
grandmother about every 7 years (I don’t know if this is exactly true and I
remember in high school figuring out that frequency of visits). Thank goodness she lived into her 90s (as did
my paternal grandmother) and a few months before she died I was fortunate to
travel to England (via Bern Switzerland where my husband was working at the
time) with my children (6 and 8) so that they could all meet (laughingly
enough, she first met my daughter when she was 1, 7years before!). My daughter still remembers this trip and
though we only spent 1 day with her great grandmother, she left a lasting
impression on my daughter.
Her most lasting impression on me
was as a teenager. She came over to visit here (I can still picture a photo
taken of her standing by a lake – which I cannot seem to find at the moment)
and while in town she took over my room.
I don’t remember where I slept.
My bed had a headboard and footboard and she was always hitting her legs
against the footboard and cursing it in a very understated British way with a
smile. When she was leaving, she left me
with a little wrought iron candle holder (which I still have in my shoebox,
literally a shoe box, which is all besides clothes that I took when I left for
college and then the rest of my life) and she shared a version of the following
with me.
She said that she “knew” that I was
always being blamed for things that I had not done and to not take to heart that
my mother was critical of my nerdish & dreamy ways (obviously not the word
an English grandmother would say and you get the gist). It still brings tears to my eyes, over 40
years later, to just remember the “strength” that she gave me to be myself,
regardless of others. My grandmother “got
me.” She didn’t
find me lacking. She understood why I
kept a low profile (she obviously had shared my closet and had seen my personal
artwork and other things stored there that I would never have shared with the
rest of my family as they would have made fun of me, based on enough past
experience) and she respected me for that.
My grandmother, in a couple of
sentences, helped empower me to remain strong to who I was and would become. She helped give me the strength to live life
on my own terms, to be who I am ....
That is my ONE story about my
grandmother ... what is yours?
++++++++++++++++++++++
SALT
LAKE CITY,
UTAH—If you could share ONE story about
your grandma, what would it be? That’s the question nonprofit FamilySearch
International (FamilySearch.org) is nudging people worldwide to respond to as
part of its worldwide #meetmygrandma social media campaign, September 20-30.
FamilySearch announced the campaign
today, seeking 10,000 stories in 10 days to kick off the global initiative
where descendants are invited to share and preserve online or through a mobile
app the fond memories or stories about their grandmothers’ charms or
idiosyncrasies. Find out more at FamilySearch.org/MeetMyGrandma.
“Heart-warming experiences with a
beloved grandmother are at the heart of many fond memories from our formative
years, or even adulthood,” said Brad Lowder, International Marketing Director
for #MeetMyGrandma campaign. “All you have to do is ask a person to share a
special memory about their grandmother, and they immediately wax sentimental as
they recount a heartfelt story or wise saying they cherish from a grandmother.
We want to encourage people to capture for future generations those stories
that make their grandmothers so special.”
FamilySearch.org offers a free
international service for families to share their family histories, memories,
photos, and historic documents online and preserve them for future generations.
If you are fortunate to have a grandma still living, the free FamilySearch
Memories mobile app (IOS only for now) allows individuals to audio record their
grandmother and save those recordings online. And there are 20 fun questions to
ask your grandma to help write and preserve her personal history in her own
words online.
“The #meetmygrandma campaign encourages
families to have fun as each member of the family shares their personal
perspectives of what makes their grandmothers so special to them,” added
Lowder. Their stories, and those contributed by other family members and
relatives, are saved to a dynamic online profile dedicated specifically to
their grandma, along with any photos and digital artifacts submitted.
One youth contributor wrote,
“Grandma Ella likes to Fly. Age 80 isn’t too old to fly. She discovered she
loves jumping out of airplanes. Now I know where I get my adventurous
personality.” He included a picture of her skydiving with her coach. Another
woman tells how her grandmother suffered for 20 long painful years from cancer,
rheumatoid arthritis, and other illnesses, but still managed to run a
successful business from her bed.
The launch of the initiative runs
from September 20–30, but the campaign will run indefinitely. Go to FamilySearch.org/meetmygrandma for more information.
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Unless indicated
otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.
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