what do you remember about your grandparents or great grand parents?

Grandma Norah (Ann Norah Victoria Shaw Maggio ~ and some other names, too, I think) ~ my mom's grandmother

Grandma Norah had beautiful white hair. I want white hair when I get OLD, too. She grew up in England and kept her beautiful accent. I always thought she smelled good, andl ooked beautiful. She had a very crowded apartment (an old-style "assisted-living" apartment) in Lacey. Her furniture was very fancy, I thought, because it was white and pretty. She had lots of crocheted poodles, pillows, afghans and dolls. I remember her being elegant. Her hands and arms and cheeks were always soft.

Her Aunt was a famous male impersonator on the London Stage. She told me once that Aunt Hetty would invite her over to play in her jewelry and she would put on the big rings and earrings and necklaces and prance around her home. It was only years later that she realized that Aunt Hetty didn't have "costume jewelry" ~ it was all real. Grandma Norah laughed and told me, "If I'd known that they were real, some of them might have ended up in my pockets, wouldn't they?!"

When I moved to New York to be a nanny, we exchanged letters for several months. I was surprised at how well she understood me and understood my late-teen angst. When she died she was 88 years old, and I cried because I wasn't there to say goodbye to her. But chances are, if I was there, I wouldn't have known her as well as I had come to know her through letters.