Stories from Grandparents

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 storiesfromgrandparentspodcast@gmail.com. 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.

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. 

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. 

Four-year-old Raegan asks her Grandma, Sue, all sorts of questions, while Robin and Sue discuss how parenthood has changed throughout her lifetime.  This episode reminds us why grandparenthood is so special!

Having lived through hardships such war and the Great Depression, our grandparents come from a time when saving and using everything you had was necessary for survival.  This episode touches on the importance of not wasting anything.

This episode is a very special one.  Our guest, Talisa, is one of Robin's best friends, and  inspirations for the podcast.  She was raised by her old-school Italian grandparents in their hometown of Quesnel, BC.  Having grandparents as parents is a unique experience  --both in terms of hilarious generational gaps, but also loss of parent-figures at a young age.

In this episode you’ll hear stories from the other side! Here’s a collection of tales involving the ghosts and the supernatural.

A retired English teacher and a writer, Barry reads a story he wrote about his Scottish grandmother chastising his childhood bullies. He also touches on a theme that comes up often in this podcast: grandparents creating a feeling of safety, and a soft place to land. 

It’s no surprise that stories of resilience came out again and again during our interviews.  This collection of stories all happen to involve strong women, who became badass grandmas!

Initially, we had planned to include Paul in our love stories episode, but when we re-listened to his interview, we decided he needed his own!  His grandmother loved telling the story of how his grandfather proposed.  He retells this story, and explains how their love survived distance, time, illness, and even death.  Get your tissues ready and enjoy! 

A major theme that arose during our interviews were stories of immigration, settlement and displacement.  A common thread through all of the stories though, was the idea of leaving (or fleeing) to find a better life in another land.