Happy Birthday Nanna and Grandpa

Yesterday my Nanna, and tomorrow my Grandpa, would have been 92 years old. Their birthdays were two days apart, and we always celebrated on the 12th. In honour of their birthdays, I would like to share some memories.

Nanna
Nanna was a petite woman. Sweet, kind, quiet and as tough as nails. She loved children. I'm sure she would have dearly loved a huge gaggle of them for herself. Sadly, there was only my Mum. We know of 3 miscarriages, I am fairly certain there would have been more. She loved to bake, and I spent many hours as a child making pikelets with her and putting the cherries on top of cupcakes with white icing. Butterfly cakes were my favourite and I still haven't been able to replicate her delicious cornflake biscuits! She was a doting grandmother. She saved every imaginable container, carefully washed them, and stored them in her "sun room" for my brother and I to make things out of. When I was sick and had to stay home from school, she would wrap me up in her blue crocheted rug and pour me flat lemonade. If she and Grandpa ever had to collect me from school (or anywhere), she would wrap two biscuits in a paper bag and leave them on the back seat of the car for me. If I was sleeping over and woke too early, she would crawl into bed with me and we would chat sleepily until it was time to get up. She let me have have jam and cream sandwiches for lunch.

Sadly, dementia took her from us long before she left this earth. Dementia is an evil, wretched thing. Three days before I was due to be married, I went and sat with her and chatted about the wedding. We were getting married in the country and I was leaving the day before the wedding. I told her all about our plans, and told her that I would be back in town on Tuesday and would bring her my bouquet. She was not able to talk, but she looked at me and she cried. At that moment I knew she was with me. The dementia had faded for a moment. And at that moment, I knew it would be the last time I ever saw her. She slipped away the next morning. I took her my bouquet on Tuesday as promised, and placed it on her casket.

Grandpa
Grandpa was a strong man. A gentleman in the truest sense of the word. I was a feminist from an early age, and we had many clashes about that. He still believed that a woman's place was in the home, raising the children. But he was my biggest fan when I did well at school and he cried tears of pride when I graduated University - the first (man or woman) in my family to do so. Grandpa was conservative in his ideals and very set in his ways. He was the first person there to lend a hand in a crisis, no matter who you were. Quietly, no fussing and no expectations of any accolades. He would do anything for his family, especially Nanna. I always knew if I was ever in a jam, Grandpa would get me out of it. Like the time I accidentally locked myself in the toilet and he rescued me LOL. He loved to sing, especially hymns (even though he was not terribly religious). He was Welsh and proud of it. He thought golf "spoiled a good walk", but he loved lawn bowls - I suspect not so much for the sport, but for the beers with the boys afterwards.

Grandpa suffered 3 strokes, and was in care when he died. Fortunately he did not suffer dementia as my Nanna did. I went to see him on a Friday night. He had pneumonia and was coughing oh so much. At one point he looked at me and said "I don't know how much longer I can do this." I told him not to worry about any of us, we were all OK and he should do whatever he needed. On Sunday his sister came to visit him. He passed away that night.

My grandparents adored each other. They were not the "lovey dovey" type, but Grandpa always held out his hand to help Nanna up a step or into a car. They always pecked each other on the lips twice before going to bed, or leaving each other. Even in the depths of dementia, Nanna still did this. When Grandpa passed away, she sat with him for the longest time and stroked his hand, tucked the covers under his chin and made sure there were no creases in the blanket.

My darling grandparents, Happy Heavenly Birthday to You. I love you deeply and miss you more than you could ever know.