Gran the Marriage Advisor

Kia ora koutou,

One short memory I have of Gran is having a chat about my love life with her - a topic I never really thought I'd be discussing with my Grandmother! After complaining that I was living in the man-drought capital of the world, Gran simply said to me that "the reason you're not married is that you're just not looking hard enough!" What more could I say in response to that, but suggest she come along next time I "go looking" so she could ensure I was looking properly!

Its hard to believe she has gone ... but her stories are going to live on.

Arohanui Gran,

Katie xox

Yvonne/Mum/Gran & Great Gran

I had no idea that Mum had a camellia named after her..... & I have 40+ in our garden! The next step is to locate a cutting or plant which I know Karl Rossiter will achieve, if anyone can.

We're back home trying to slot back into our life after Mum's funeral but I can't stop thinking about her.

I remember as a stroppy teenager deciding that there was no way these 2 annoying persons, Yvonne & Bill could be my true parents... I had to be adopted! I now realise that Mum had 3 stroppy teenagers to deal with at any one time & I'm full of admiration. Of course I can hear Stu denying he was difficult? Also she was teaching teenagers every day.

Jane

Deepest, Darkest South America

My Gran was indeed a traveller. Eventually, I understand she even managed to convince my very reluctant Grandfather to travel with her. One of their first trips was to Argentina, Chile and other parts of South America. Once more, my Gran's independence was shining through.

Many years later, I followed her footsteps on my own trip to that region. Even now, South America is not a very common destination for Kiwi travellers. My destination and a recent bad head injury I'd received made members of my family distinctly nervous about my safety.

My trip went very well, but it's only now that I've thought of the obvious reply I could have used when dealing with concerns about my choice of destination: come on, it can't be that dangerous. My own grandmother went there years ago!

I guess my own travels represented an opportunity for Gran to relive her trip. She contacted and attempted to organise for me to meet up with a friend she'd made in a place near Santiago, Chile. As well as her independence, her love of people was once more shining through.

Cheers,
Mike

My First Memories of Gran

Among my first memories of Gran are those from when I was in primary school. When you're that young, you start out thinking that your life and everything in it is entirely normal. Gradually, you learn that, in many cases, that's not quite so and, in some cases, your life is entirely abnormal.

While at primary school, I had holidays away at Gran's farm. To my surprise, I found it abnormal, amongst my primary school friends, to have a granma who not only ran her own dairy farm, but lived by herself upon it! Could you get any more independent?

Cheers,
Mike

Big on Independence and Big on People

Shortly after Yvonne's passing, I had a few hours spare. I stopped in a cafe, got myself a coffee and had a sit and think about the life of my dear Gran, Yvonne. In many of the anecdotes I thought about, two themes rang true: my Gran was big on being independent and big on people!

I'm writing separate posts for each anecdote that expresses these themes. So stay tuned!

Cheers,
Mike

A moment in a West Coast pub

Back in the 70's Bryce and I spent a couple of weeks travelling around the South Island with my parents. We were in a West Coast pub one night and my mother went up to the bar to buy the next round of drinks. With 30 seconds she was having a laugh with the barman and exchanging banter with the blokes leaning on the bar. The whole atmosphere had livened up no end.

Back in our corner, my father looked amused and commented proudly: "She's always been like that. Her father was too. Its just like him"

One of my memories of Gran is of her taking care of us once when Mum & Dad were away, and teaching us to play "Oh Shit" - a card game that was a version of 500 except that if you won more tricks than you had bid you lost the hand, and if you said "Oh shit", you lost all your points. I remember thinking that no one else at school had a Gran who taught them to play card games like that.