grandparents

Becoming a grandparent makes getting older something to look forward to - all the fun of parenting, without the hassle.

Best left in the past
It was raining the day of the funeral. A huge blanket of swollen gray clouds was smeared across the sky, pelting fat drops onto my neon rainbow umbrella. This was my very first funeral, and it seemed every bit like it did in the movies. Everything was there; everyone was dressed in black, holding their matching black umbrellas, and it was raining.
By Sasha Beres5 years ago in Families
Reading the Full Story
In the recesses of her memories, Nana had always been cold. Condescending. Uncaring. Less grandmotherly than normal. Her mother would tell her that Nana was always like that, even before she was born. She would tell her that Nana had grown from a hard life into a hard woman and into a harder mother, with expectations put on her by everyone and everything. She had to be a good career woman, otherwise she wasn’t as good as the men and she had to be a good wife, otherwise she’d be left. Being a good mother hadn’t made the list.
By Tiffany 🌟5 years ago in Families
The Paper Thief
I crouched at the edge of the property. In front of me was a vast swath of land that led up to a large traditional brick manor. It's peaks disappearing into the grey clouded sky. I thought of the irony of the pathetic fallacy before me. My clothes felt damp on my skin from the drizzle of rain around me. I sat in silence, as I waited.
By Rachel McKenna5 years ago in Families
The Things We Inherit
"I wasn't even that fat. I remember feeling like I was morbidly obese or something. I was so cute. Right?” She flipped the photo around towards me with the motion of turning a car key. A radiant little girl with a bowl cut. She wore a striped tank top. I had already looked through the stack of photos before she got there. The thought of fat or skinny hadn’t crossed my mind. Just the compassion you feel when you see someone as an innocent child, and whose faults you experience on a daily basis as an adult.
By Rigo Bonilla5 years ago in Families
Death and Flowers
My grandfather had collected an impressive assortment of monsters in his lifetime, but none were as impressive as my mother, his eldest daughter. Even dressed for a funeral, she glided through the crowd like a graceful predator. And before I could edge further from the fray of condolence-wielding socialites, she pinned me with a sharklike smile. I froze.
By Linda M5 years ago in Families
The Stories We Do Not Tell
She dies on a Tuesday. Quietly; inconspicuously; just as she lived. Her husband calls their children to tell them. He never understood this strange woman who shared his bed, his home, who wore his wedding band for fifty-seven years. But he loved her. As much as he could. As much as anyone can love a person they don’t understand.
By Alexandra Kelter5 years ago in Families
When Seeking Adventure
Loraine Bonny’s physical pain had finally pulled at the threads of her emotional procrastination, as she sat outside of the chiropractor’s office with her head in her hands. The weight of her grandfather Edwin’s recent death, until today, was the most enveloping feeling she could ever remember experiencing. Loraine made her way through the foreign Sierra Vista chiropractor’s office still trying to wrap her head around the encounter she had just experienced at the Food Co-Op, which she was certain had changed her life for forever. She wondered how much longer she would have gone on living complacently if the office in her home town hadn’t closed permanently due to Covid-19 restrictions. For the first time in a week, she allowed herself to relax as the heating pads weighed heavily on her back, sending floods of pain and anguish throughout her body and psyche. She was scared of her aging body, she was upset with her granddad for dying, but mostly, she was mad at him for allowing her to live so plentiful, in ignorant bliss, while so many were starved, impoverished and without basic needs.
By Kamo Youngblood5 years ago in Families
Remembering Legacy
My momma wasnt much for talkin' but she when she did, she told t’story of a man. Down off the banks of the miss’ippi, way down in younder in them swamplands off New Orlins. You know the ones, all wild and untamed like. Give you the creeps, enough bugs to make your skin crawl. Worse than them big ole roaches we had in Mobile. MmmMmm. There they got them flyin' waterbugs big as ya palm —
By Jasmine Marie5 years ago in Families
The Half-Drawn Owl
Jade, her feet hitting the road beneath her, continued thinking about how fun an extra $2,000 would be. But the competition her friend had mentioned was a contest for writers, and Jade was (contractually) just a Media Manager and, at this very moment, (decidedly) just a runner.
By K. Saunders5 years ago in Families
World Weavers
If one said her grandma was strange and there would be a dozen people in the small village of Nara that would smile and agree, able to recall the time she had based all her outfits after children's books for a month for the third graders she taught or the time she knitted stars for those that had been in her book club longer than any of her children had been alive.
By Marie Kolb5 years ago in Families
The Last Will and Testament of Cora Mae Redding
The lawyer’s cavernous office swallows me whole and I feel lost. “Sandra Redding?” Don Blasingame asks. I nod, hugging myself as I eye his extended hand. His fingers curl away, and the proffered hand instead points to a chair. I slide into the leather seat and cross my legs, tugging down my short skirt. My purse hangs heavy on my shoulder, and I shrug it off and drop it to the floor. In it is a full bottle of Halcion, pills supposedly to help me sleep. More than enough to see me to the end.
By Mike Akins5 years ago in Families
Anita’s Little Black Book
Anita’s Little Black Book Let me introduce myself to you, my name is Ana Kovac. Amongst other things, I love telling people stories and this is one of my favourites to tell. It’s about my grandma and her small black notebook. Are you ready? Grab yourself a cup of tea or coffee and join me.
By Caroline Ferreira5 years ago in Families