Stories from Grandparents

Welcome to the Season 2 Finale! Greg, host of The Cool Grandpa Podcast, joins us to talk about the unique role grandfathers can play in the lives of their grandkids, with just a bit of intentionality.  We get into stories about the impact his grandfather had in his life, and the impact he hopes to create as a grandparent.  He’s a very cool grandpa indeed! 

Listener Stories: This season we had some listeners email some stories, so we put them together in an episode! If you have an interesting story to share about your grandparent, please email us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear it! 

When you have multiple identities, how do you find connection to your culture or heritage? For Sam, it meant embarking on an epic journey to India to find his grandfather’s home, with nothing but a faded photograph and vague family memories to guide him.

Ever hear of a grandma getting kicked out of a WWE wrestling match? What about one who is an ‘unknowing’ weed dealer?  Well this episode has the grandparents for you!  Join us as Mick, host of the Mick’s Picks podcast, tells all of his hilarious, heartwarming grandparent stories.  Mick is the host of the Mickpix Podcast --check it out for literally any sports knowledge. It's fantastic!

As listeners know, we’re always looking for different types of grandparent stories because not everyone has heartwarming, positive relationships with their families.  Lauren gave us stories of family dysfunction, where her battleax grandmother was often at the center.

Anna, host of the podcast Heart-to-Heart with Anna, joined us from Texas!   Her grandmother sounds like she was a character! She instilled values of standing up for oneself and the importance of education.  She fled an abusive relationship in the 1940s –an incredibly difficult thing for a young woman to do in that era.  Anna was able to channel the wisdom and strength her grandmother passed onto her during a parallel situation in her own life.  

Jason’s grandfather was a lover of horses and horse racing.  Jason took the opportunity to interview him on tape before he died, so our listeners will get to hear pieces of their conversation.  It’s a heartwarming special treat!  Turns out the qualities that make someone good with horses, also make them good at being a grandparent.

This season we were in search of grandparent stories that weren't so positive, just to balance out all the happy, heartwarming stories.  Josh delivered! He comes from a Mennonite family in rural Manitoba.  We learn a bit about the Mennonite religion and culture, as well as his family’s difficult relationship with his maternal grandmother, who struggled with mental illness. 

The stories in this episode take us further back in time than we’re used to on this podcast.  Our guest, Mary, talks about her grandmothers, whose husbands left them behind in Italy while they traveled to the Americas in search of building better lives for their families.  However, they were gone for 30 years, often with little or no communication, leaving their wives to raise their large families on their own.  Often referred to as the White Widows, this was a common experience of Southern Italian women in the 1920s and 1930s. The strength, resourcefulness, and undying love these women had is unparalleled.

Robert didn’t know his grandfather that well, but was always puzzled by the leg injury he had.  Did it happen during a WWII battle? Did he fall down a flight of stairs? After his death, Robert sought answers to how his grandpa hurt his leg so badly, and to who he was as a person during his young life.