My Great Grandmother was born in rural Wyoming in 1918. She was one of 11 children. They grew up very poor. She pretty much raised me as a child, and as she got too old to live alone I was her care taker. I have heard the same stories of her childhood so many times that I can probably recite them word for word.She would talk about picking up buffalo chips (dried poo) in the prairies for cooking fuel when they couldn't afford coal. Her dad hunting rabbits and poaching salmon to feed them. Buying dented mystery cans from the market and eating whatever was in them for dinner. Her mother used to make the girls dresses out of old flour sacks they found behind bakeries or bought for a few pennies. They had an outhouse and used old newspaper …
Stories
Theresa Wiza, on being grandmother of 17 grandchildren
“With so many grandchildren (17 of them), ranging in age from less than 1 to nearly 27 years old, I enjoy doing anything and everything with them. Just cuddling the babies and talking to them, having picnics (indoor or outdoor) with the toddlers, taking walks to the park, reading books, and talking to the older ones about things that matter to them. WHAT we do doesn’t matter -– THAT we spend time together does. Sadly, only three of my grandkids live close to me, but with phones and Skype and lots of birthday parties spread out throughout the year, we have plenty of times to connect. What I want for my grandchildren is for them to find their own personal joy in doing whatever brings them fulfillment. I want them to be compassionate and …
The Monkey and the Gun
My grandfather was 16 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. A recruiter came to his schoolhouse, and my grandfather picked up his books, dumped them in the trash, and got on his horse to follow the recruiter down to the processing station. He lied about his age and ended up as a gunner on a destroyer in the Mediterranean. After the war, he worked as a railman on the railroad. Part of his job was to jump out of the locomotive at rural stations and switch the track if there was no lineman there. One afternoon, he got out to switch the tracks and saw a beautiful young woman in an adjacent field picking flowers. He ran over to her as the train pulled away, and 8 months later they were married. That was 1949. She died this past April, and my …
Introducing Grand Send: send cards to love ones
We're so excited to introduce Grand Send to the world.What is Grand Send? Grand Send helps anyone send personal cards to their loved ones, such as their Grandparents, every week, month, or three months. You sign up using just a phone number and Grand Send then texts the number every week, month, or three months. All you have to do is text back a photo and a message.We print the card with the photo on the front and the message and your return address on the back. Then we ship the card to whoever you chose when you signed up.It's that easy! The card itself is standard size, so 4 x 6, and we use an algorithm to crop the photo to look perfect on the card. The message can be should be about 420 characters. As a reference, that’s …