Member-only story
The Authentic Eclectic
What Grandma Did When the War Ended
And other fond memories of my grandmother
Grandma told me the story about her experience when World War II ended a couple of times. I loved Grandma’s stories. Like her, they were dainty and delicate — a few basic observations were made but the real story could be found in what she omitted.
Grandma was a sweet, slightly nervous lady. She was very Irish even though both her parents had immigrated to Australia when they were children. She went to mass every Sunday, played cards with other ladies, cooked a wicked sponge cake and never, ever disclosed her age. In fact, Dad told me not to ask Grandma how old she was because it upset her. Not long ago, I saw her year of birth on Ancestry.com and I felt like I’d invaded her privacy.
As a kid, I was a bit of a smart alec who saw herself as equal to adults. Grandma rarely told me or any of the other grandkids off, though. But I do remember a couple things she was strict about.
Manners
One day, Grandma announced she’d bought a book called Manners for Children and was going to leave it on the bookshelf in case anyone was interested in reading it. I was not interested in the subject matter, but I was a voracious reader. So I read Manners for Children…
