Childhood Memories

Childhood Memories

I remember a wonderful sweet lady in my past.  She was born in the last ten years of the 1800’s. Growing up in the country becoming a mom of five as early as 1914.  She did her best to care for all of her children during the depression and could cook anything.  My knowledge of her happened much later since I was born in 1954.  She was my grandmother, her name Grote Lucinda Woods.  She was,  Granny Grote to me and several grandchildren.  To say she was loved would be an understatement.  I know each grandchild has their own story of her but this is mine and my childhood with her in it.

   My mother was born in Illinois but grew up in Alabama and at the age of 12, Granny Grote and my grandfather divorced.  That was unheard of at the time about 1935 to be exact.  Granny Grote, moved from her farm life to various places to finally ending up in Nashville, Tennessee.  She remarried to a man named James Winters.  Mister Winters also had children from a previous marriage which gave Granny Grote numerous other step children.  She loved Christmas and we would go to the 5 and 10 cent store to get gifts for all of those grand children along with her own grands.  Her home in Nashville she turned into an apartment house.  I would say she had a big heart because all different kinds of people would live there.  My mother told me she managed a kitchen at a hotel in Winchester, Tennessee at one time.  Granny Grote, I was told had to be industrious in a new town of Nashville. . She remarried and made a new life for her child that had not remained with my grandfather.  I was adopted and so was my brother.  We would visit at that apartment house of hers on several occasions.  The stores and shops were close by and my brother and I would walk with my grandmother to the Woolworth store and grocery.  When we crossed the street, Granny Grote would stop traffic for us to get to the other side.  She once drove to the DMV to get her license, problem was she didn’t have one.  The officer asked her how she got there?  She told him she drove there.  That was a reason she got the nickname, Little Old Lady from Pasadena. She became diabetic and would have blackouts resulting in hitting a number of parked cars.  We would often take trips to family events in Alabama.  We were driving through a small town, Granny Grote was no longer driving but my mother was.  Mother got a ticket for passing on the right.  My grandmother perked up and told mother to tell the policeman she did that all the time in Nashville.  Mother hushed her so hoping the officer didn’t hear her.  She finally moved in with our family because she needed help to maintain her diabetes.  That was time I remember was a most precious time.  We shared my bedroom and secrets.  She finally moved in with her other daughter before going into a nursing home.  My last memory of her is walking in the hallway of that nursing home.  My childhood would not have been so blessed without, Granny Grote. I remember a person who had lived a great life full of love.