p s i really like your biography { the agony and the ecstasy } and our real life is about to begin , i hope } and ur writing style simply elegant ... ps i too recieved unconditional love from my grand mother , good God bless her beautiful soul
me too ... i feel like they gone away to the shops or holiday, visiting friends ... i hope and pray they are in heaven after being here on this earth level .... " where angels fear to thread " we have been to hell ,... for a heavenly cause ,i hope ... i sometines think/feel they / we deserve to go to heaven .... { i know we dont deserve heaven } i think we are all getting what we deserve ,,, ie reaping what we have sown ... somehow ... still God is love and waits for us his childern to return .... thats my final conclusion ... wishing you Gods love ,peace and joy
This story was so well-written and beautiful. It was especially meaningful as I just lost my 101-year old mother. She was a very kind librarian and teacher.
Vivid memoir! Like you I never cried at my grandparents' funerals but I tend to miss them more with each passing year. Strangely I even miss people I never knew - John Lennon for example!
Oh I miss him and George Harrison too! I don't think blood relatives matter more than anyone else, really. I miss a lot of good people like Robin Williams, Elvis, Michael Jackson and an endless stream of influential writers and leaders. Of course we build a certain kind of love and respect for those who influenced us along the way.
You make a good case, Dallas! It would seem that encouraging OCD in the population fits their agenda. I don't actually have OCD, I was joshing! I think most psychological diagnostics are pants! lol
Yes please! You can address it to franleader@hotmail.co.uk. Mark it with a title READ ME! to make it stand out from the hundreds of Substack emails I get every day please! xx
Post WWII, so many of us lived with our grandmothers. More recently, I have realised that parenting by actual parents only emerged with the industrial revolution. Prior to that era, grandparents and older family raised the young children while all ablebodied members laboured in the fields.
More recently, with grandparents and uncles dying so prematurely, Aboriginal children grow up without anyone to teach them to read, to develop aspirations and ambitions, to learn rright from wrong, or to learn self-denial and discipline. It has not occured to governments to advise parents that this is now their role. Thus, two generations of Aboriginal children have grown up without survival skills and are reduced to stealing for a living. This has devolved to gang robbery and assault. Authorities have no idea what is causing this, and the bleeding hearts and do-gooders dribble on about patience and kindness, oblivious to the causes and obvious remedial course of action.
Meanwhile, Aboriginal activists demand funding to resolve issues for themselves, which is basically the blind leading the blind. It will take a revolution to restore sane government and rule of law.
I am named after my grandmother who died before I was born. She was supposedly loved by all. The other grandmum was a Bette Davis redo. Are the other family members just jealous of your special bond? Sounds like it. You're very lucky indeed Frances, we always have our memories.
My family members may have been a little jealous. They did their best not to show it, though!! I was the only one of the many grandchildren who needed to be cared for during our childhoods. My mum was ahead of her time and a career woman. She did not give up working until my younger brother was born, and even then, I went to my grandmother's a lot because I wanted to be there. If I was at home, I tended to go out and play in the street or the bomb sites, getting filthy! But if I was at my gran's I would have to stay clean to be allowed to knit and sew! I think that my grandmother realised that the only way to stop me being wayward was to keep me busy learning something!!
They don't make them like her anymore. She'd probably have taught you all that whether your mum was there or not! That's just what they did as should have been always, a custom that's been lost and sorely missed and much needed. I know you do count your blessings and I bet you're probably the same type of Gran that she was. I was older, 17, when my parents divorced and mum went back to work. I left a year later.
My grandkids are like all kids these days, obsessed with screens and smart phones! If I try to teach them how to play cards or sew or knit they would not concentrate properly. This bothers me a lot but that is what happens when they are left in front of a tell-lie-vision from birth!
I think our generation has been uniquely caught in a time warp. Old enough to remember the past the way things used to be, in an ideal world. Yet growing up in the 60s and 70s was like nothing else ever, it was special. There's been so much negative said about it but not for me. There was so much spiritual enlightenment if you were open to it. Just listening to the lyrics of many songs was amazing. One that always comes to mind is Ten Years After I'd Love to Change the World. How prescient. And that's what it was all about. I feel sorry for kids today. I don't have any, maybe a blessing?
I think that at funerals you know that it is only the shell of the person that was, their soul is most probably " Dancing like a Dervish" Quote from Meet Joe Black film. The only time I tend to well up is when I see the hurt in someone else's eyes and the love that they are missing, bit of a sentimental old fart is me. Always remember my Grandmother on my mother side, loved her Guinness came from Irish stock and on my fathers side Kent country folk, my Grandmother was always caked in make up and ruled over my Granddad who was so quiet. Takes all sorts to make your world.
Did you know that today is Grandparent's Day? I didn't! How serendipitous of me! Obviously my subconscious picked up the vibe! lol https://www.yahoo.com/news/entertainment/happy-national-grandparents-day-see-130000651.html
p s i really like your biography { the agony and the ecstasy } and our real life is about to begin , i hope } and ur writing style simply elegant ... ps i too recieved unconditional love from my grand mother , good God bless her beautiful soul
me too ... i feel like they gone away to the shops or holiday, visiting friends ... i hope and pray they are in heaven after being here on this earth level .... " where angels fear to thread " we have been to hell ,... for a heavenly cause ,i hope ... i sometines think/feel they / we deserve to go to heaven .... { i know we dont deserve heaven } i think we are all getting what we deserve ,,, ie reaping what we have sown ... somehow ... still God is love and waits for us his childern to return .... thats my final conclusion ... wishing you Gods love ,peace and joy
This story was so well-written and beautiful. It was especially meaningful as I just lost my 101-year old mother. She was a very kind librarian and teacher.
Love this, and through it, your grandma.
Cheers!
You'd love my grandma, too... One day we'll all laugh together in the Next Phase... xo
Top read, you just turned a shit day into a good one, thinking about my nanna who used to live in Barnet.
Thanks for sharing another part of your life, Frances. Wonderful. I could relate to quite a bit. 🤗
Love the way you view the world!
I'll tell the other half, it's all BS, have been trying to tell her this for years.
Vivid memoir! Like you I never cried at my grandparents' funerals but I tend to miss them more with each passing year. Strangely I even miss people I never knew - John Lennon for example!
Oh I miss him and George Harrison too! I don't think blood relatives matter more than anyone else, really. I miss a lot of good people like Robin Williams, Elvis, Michael Jackson and an endless stream of influential writers and leaders. Of course we build a certain kind of love and respect for those who influenced us along the way.
Had a thought this morning when you mentioned OCD, my wife has it and I think most people have some sort of OCD. But when I looked at the symptoms
Common types of compulsive behaviour in people with OCD include:
cleaning and hand washing.
checking – such as checking doors are locked or that the gas is off.
counting.
ordering and arranging.
hoarding.
asking for reassurance.
repeating words in their head.
thinking "neutralising" thoughts to counter the obsessive thoughts.
These could all apply to what the mad men trying to control us have
Cleaning and washing, isn't that what they wanted everyone to do
Checking that everyone was doing as they were told and making doors close for us
Counting how many people they could make disappear
Ordering and arranging they done plenty of this
hoarding putting people into 15min cities
Asking for reassurance looking to their peers to make sure they were doing the same
Repeating words in their heads, Build back better, It's for your safety.
Thinking "neutralising" thoughts counter the obsessive thoughts, no one forced you to take the jab
Not sure if this quite fits but hope you like the analogy,
You make a good case, Dallas! It would seem that encouraging OCD in the population fits their agenda. I don't actually have OCD, I was joshing! I think most psychological diagnostics are pants! lol
It's complicated. I wrote a paper that explains the genocide and, if you like, I can send you a copy as PDF.
Yes please! You can address it to franleader@hotmail.co.uk. Mark it with a title READ ME! to make it stand out from the hundreds of Substack emails I get every day please! xx
Post WWII, so many of us lived with our grandmothers. More recently, I have realised that parenting by actual parents only emerged with the industrial revolution. Prior to that era, grandparents and older family raised the young children while all ablebodied members laboured in the fields.
More recently, with grandparents and uncles dying so prematurely, Aboriginal children grow up without anyone to teach them to read, to develop aspirations and ambitions, to learn rright from wrong, or to learn self-denial and discipline. It has not occured to governments to advise parents that this is now their role. Thus, two generations of Aboriginal children have grown up without survival skills and are reduced to stealing for a living. This has devolved to gang robbery and assault. Authorities have no idea what is causing this, and the bleeding hearts and do-gooders dribble on about patience and kindness, oblivious to the causes and obvious remedial course of action.
Meanwhile, Aboriginal activists demand funding to resolve issues for themselves, which is basically the blind leading the blind. It will take a revolution to restore sane government and rule of law.
Thanks Tony. You paint a grim picture there. I did not realise how bad it is for the aboriginal people. Why are their elders dying off prematurely?
Ooops, I think I replied in the wrong place, above.
I am named after my grandmother who died before I was born. She was supposedly loved by all. The other grandmum was a Bette Davis redo. Are the other family members just jealous of your special bond? Sounds like it. You're very lucky indeed Frances, we always have our memories.
My family members may have been a little jealous. They did their best not to show it, though!! I was the only one of the many grandchildren who needed to be cared for during our childhoods. My mum was ahead of her time and a career woman. She did not give up working until my younger brother was born, and even then, I went to my grandmother's a lot because I wanted to be there. If I was at home, I tended to go out and play in the street or the bomb sites, getting filthy! But if I was at my gran's I would have to stay clean to be allowed to knit and sew! I think that my grandmother realised that the only way to stop me being wayward was to keep me busy learning something!!
They don't make them like her anymore. She'd probably have taught you all that whether your mum was there or not! That's just what they did as should have been always, a custom that's been lost and sorely missed and much needed. I know you do count your blessings and I bet you're probably the same type of Gran that she was. I was older, 17, when my parents divorced and mum went back to work. I left a year later.
My grandkids are like all kids these days, obsessed with screens and smart phones! If I try to teach them how to play cards or sew or knit they would not concentrate properly. This bothers me a lot but that is what happens when they are left in front of a tell-lie-vision from birth!
I think our generation has been uniquely caught in a time warp. Old enough to remember the past the way things used to be, in an ideal world. Yet growing up in the 60s and 70s was like nothing else ever, it was special. There's been so much negative said about it but not for me. There was so much spiritual enlightenment if you were open to it. Just listening to the lyrics of many songs was amazing. One that always comes to mind is Ten Years After I'd Love to Change the World. How prescient. And that's what it was all about. I feel sorry for kids today. I don't have any, maybe a blessing?
Loved this story. Thanks for sharing.
I think that at funerals you know that it is only the shell of the person that was, their soul is most probably " Dancing like a Dervish" Quote from Meet Joe Black film. The only time I tend to well up is when I see the hurt in someone else's eyes and the love that they are missing, bit of a sentimental old fart is me. Always remember my Grandmother on my mother side, loved her Guinness came from Irish stock and on my fathers side Kent country folk, my Grandmother was always caked in make up and ruled over my Granddad who was so quiet. Takes all sorts to make your world.