I feel very lucky that I was close to my Nanna and was fortunate enough to have memories of her from when I was younger as well as when I was older with children of my own.

I have so many amazing memories of my early years at my Nanna’s. I used to go once a week whilst Sonia did her paper round, and I use to stay many times overnight at the weekend.  I also had a couple of holidays with her in Wales obviously. I always remember how she used to make me hot chocolates, coke floats and doorstop toast with homemade lemon curd which was my favourite.  We used to press flowers and she attempted many times to teach me the arts of watercolours, painting, embroidery, and flower arranging.  She never once moaned at me even though I was pretty awful at all of these activities, it was apparent that I did not share my Nannas talents. I especially used to like Christmas as we used to make cards and other seasonal things which were always covered with glitter.  I used to go on many trips to garden centre with her and grandad and giggle as Nanna used to tell grandad off for his driving.  One of my most memorable trips was when she took me to London on a coach trip to watch The Phantom of the Opera, I remember being absolutely amazed, Nanna used to lover her musicals. I was absolutely devastated when she moved away but we did keep in touch.

When I had Mia she asked for her to call her Nina and she has been known as this ever since by all of my children. Glynn and I used to drive down to Nanna’s at least once a month despite her living a few hours away as she used to be desperate to have a hold of the children when they were babies, and when they got older she used to enjoy watching them play. She was also very fond of Glynn and used to be amazed at how much he used to do for the kids and how we did everything as a team.

As the children grew she used to take an interest in everything that they did and used to find it very entertaining that Lily used to play football as she was a girl.  When she moved nearer to us the girls used to love to see her. We used to visit her at her house, have her round for dinner or go out to more garden centres. The girls have a lot of fond memories of her wandering around garden centres and they always used to laugh at her hobby of buying coats and gilets everywhere we went. Woe betide anyone who questioned this!  Nanna was a force to be reckoned with and it was always much easier to go along with what she said rather than question it. She once bought Mia (aged 2) a child’s armchair after I had already said she didn’t need one, we had no room for it and we would not be able to fit it in the car, but as Nanna wanted Mia to have it regardless of what I said we ended up driving back a fair few hours home with it blocking some of the windscreen! 

She used to love to spend time with her great grandchildren, always telling them how proud she was of them, she used to love listening to Lily’s football stories and told all of her carers about how she was better than the boys.  When Finley came along she was delighted that she would have another boy to hold and in all honesty that’s exactly what she did every time I went round or she came round to mine. She had such a bond with him, he could do no wrong! He still recalls how she let him play with her ornaments – again following his Nina’s instructions who actually told me off if I said they were not for playing with. Finley has missed his Nina quite a lot and struggled to understand where she had gone, he still recalls her smiles and her chocolates. He also remembers how we used to get locked out of her apartment whilst we used to wait for her to open the gate. This happened on numerous occasions and he used to find it quite entertaining especially when nanna was laughing along with him!  Mia had a special bond with her too as she knew her the longest and had many occasions where she used to pass Nina’s house and she would bang on the window to her and her friends to get their attention and ask Mia to go to the chippy for her and they would then sit and have a chippy tea together, and to ensure Lily did not feel left out she used to always send her a little something and make a fuss of her next time she saw her.

I have always admired my Nannas strength and determination and I miss her terribly.  I have laughed and cried with her so many times over the years and used to ring her whenever I had a problem as she always found a way to help me to put things into perspective. Most of all I miss her hugs.