Kitten is our lovely host today and she has asked us to blog about our real life heroes.
I’ve recently written two posts about my real life hero, my Gran. I lost her when I was eleven years old but her influence has and will be life long. This is the second of those posts. I think it’s right for today, so sorry if you read it before.
This is her in her Guider’s uniform. She was a Brown Owl.
My Gran Booth was one of those people who radiated warmth. People knew her and loved her. She was someone they greeted with a smile, made time for, were pleased to see.I think part of her appeal was that she was just a completely genuine person. She had no agenda, saw the best in everyone and I don’t think I ever saw her truly angry.
She ran the church Brownie pack which meant I kind of had to share her a little as all my friends knew her and loved her too, but she made sure me and my sister and brothers felt special. We knew she was ours and we were hers.
As I grew older I was not a very confident child, but when I was with her I was lively, cheeky, talkative and completely myself. There was no other adult in my life that I was able to be that carefree with and I cherished her. If I was ever naughty she just had to give me ‘that look’ and I would be desperate to make amends, but then she would smile and I knew I was forgiven and the cloud would lift.
I lost my Gran when I was eleven years old. I talked recently about the last time I saw her in this post.
This had quite a devastating affect on me in many ways. Don’t get me wrong, I come from a loving family, but I always felt my Gran understood me a little bit more and that we were very similar. We looked alike, we were both a little on the chubby side, we laughed and sneezed loudly and often took people under our wings if we felt they were a little bit lost or low.
For so many years after she died I felt a little piece of me was gone too. I was so angry that I hadn’t known her as an adult. I wondered about what made her laugh, what made her cross, what her politics were.
I felt cheated, wounded, and bit by bit I felt her slipping away more and more.
This left me with such an empty feeling, and also guilt because I mustn’t have loved her enough, otherwise I wouldn’t feel so far away from her. I was losing her again but I didn’t know how to get her back.
Recently though,when I began writing my book I found her again. It wasn’t that I’d consciously based the gran in my story on her, but as I wrote a scene where my 11 year old main character had her nose powdered by her gran, I smelt the powder, and I remembered watching my gran putting her powder on and asking why.
Gran: “Because ladies don’t like their faces to be shiny”, she replied, dabbing a little on my freckled nose and holding her compact up for me to see. I remember thinking how funny that was, and how my shiny kids nose looked much nicer but I didn’t say as I didn’t want to make her sad.
In that moment, when I read over my words, I knew she was still with me. Because even if I forget events, places, her voice, I could never forget her presence, her smell and the way she made me feel.
Now click on Ktten’s link and you’ll see the other Fun Monday participants in her sidebar. Go and check out their real life heroes. I’m sure you won’t regret it.
Also, if you want to hear the very drunken part of our great British blog meet, then go visit the gorgeous and talented and extremely funny Cami Kaos to hear Cami and the delectable Mr Kaos, Belle, Holly and me being very silly, a little bit cheeky, occasionally rude and very, very drunk. It is ‘epic win’.
(Picture courtesy of Cami xxxxx)
Have a fab day dudes, and more on the blog meet tomorrow. 
May 5th, 2008 at 4:45 am
Whatever can you mean Ms Beaufoix? We were all so proper and correct and awfully sober … !
May 5th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Lovely post Jo.
May 5th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Wonderful tribute to your Gran.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Lovely tribute you the Gran! Mine both died before I was old enough to form many memories. I’ve shared about my brother at Small Reflections today.
Hugs and blessings,
May 5th, 2008 at 8:31 am
What a wonderful post – thank you so much for sharing your Gran with us. She lives on thru your memories…what a precious gift she was in your life!
May 5th, 2008 at 8:40 am
what a great gran your gran (but not your great-gran) was.
no i’m going to agree with how drunk we were, to cover for the fact that i dropped f-bombs left, right, center, left again, another to the right, and center again. riDICulous. you two were much more well behaved than i.
and how much does cami rock the photoshop house?
May 5th, 2008 at 8:54 am
wonderful post…
and then pimping out the drunken podcast!
What a great Monday post!!!
May 5th, 2008 at 11:33 am
That is a lovely tribute to your gran. I lost one gran when I was around 12 and I sometimes get little flash backs of times we spent together. I don’t think we ever loose those memories.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Your gran would be so proud of you – and you’re right, she’s always right there with you, whether you feel it or not.
May 5th, 2008 at 11:52 am
What a great post, so sorry that you lost her so young, it does sound like she’s still with you though.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
that is a beautiful tribute, joy.
thank you for sharing it.
May 5th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
or jo.
considering my fingers have a mind of their own. sheesh!
May 5th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
She sounds like a special woman—love the nose powder story. I use a compact like that, as my face tends to be shiny!!!
May 5th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Your Gran sounds wonderful and your post made me get a bit misty eyed! I loved the shiny nose story.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I have such great memories of my granny too, that’s why I loved your post so much!
May 5th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I just rtecently lost my grandma. I see a lot of her in your Gram. I sometimes wonder how I am going to make it without her by my side.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Your Gran sounded like a wonderful lady. The way she may you feel is how my aunt made me feel. I was mad for years because I lost her when I was 18. The time in my life I felt I needed her the most! Here in the last year, I guess because I’m getting older, I’m looking over my life in a different way that I have never have before.
I wish I had wrote my post when I 1st thought of it. Because I don’t think I gave my aunt Justus.
Thank you for sharing!
May 5th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
That was an awesome post.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
What a wonderful post. That is a nice atribute to your gradma. Happy 5 de Mayo.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
How lucky you were to spend your young impressionable years “helping” your Gran. My friend Lillian says the best thing she ever did with her grandchildren was to spend afternoons in the kitchen baking pies–memories of a lifetime.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Awwwww, she sounds like such an awesome Grandma and lady. Great post!
May 5th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Your Gran sounds very special, and how wonderful that you’ve discovered how close she really is through your writing!
May 5th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
What a sweet, lovely post!
Your Gran sounds awesome. What great memories to have of her.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
what a wonderful tribute to your Gran, she sounds like she was an amazing woman.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
You Gram must have been a wonder. Happy memories what better gift
May 5th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
What a wonderful grandmother you had. It is wonderful how we remember certain things that remind us of a loved one. My grandmother’s bathroom always smelled like rosewater. One day I went to a store and saw some soap that had that scent. I bought some and now I can smell that anytime I choose. I also have a moss plant that I took out of Grandma’s garden and it has been growing for me about 20 years. Every time I look at it I am reminded of my Grandma Lola. It makes me very happy.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I think Grandmas always understand us a little bit better. Great post! Dang, I need more kleenex…
May 5th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I feel exactly the same about my grandma. She raised me until I was seven. Fortunately she could see me getting married and even knew her great grandson. She died when she was 95.
May 5th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I so loved reading about your gran. It reminded me so much of my relationship with my grandma. I miss her…and hate the feeling that I am forgetting. sigh….
May 5th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I am so glad you are able to reconnect through your writings. How wonderful, you both deserve that. As long as there is love between you then you shall never be apart. She is closer than you may think is my guess, watching over you and yours. What a great lady she seemed to be.
May 6th, 2008 at 4:10 am
Well, well, well! Thank you! You have just reminded me of my own relationship with my Nana! Unlike you I was 17 when she left us, so never forgot but the way you speak of the powder took me back a few years! My Nan would not be seen dead leaving the house “without her face on” as she put it! I used to be amazed at her posh ways, (we Aussies are pretty laid back). My god, how I miss her!
May 6th, 2008 at 7:52 am
This is such a beautiful post Jo. I still miss my grandparents. I think those close to us are always with us, whether they are on earth or not.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Wonderful lady your gran methinks!
May 6th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
My invitation got lost in the mail, right?
May 6th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
some of us don’t have such lovely memories. My grandma was one of the hardest working honest women — but she had a stroke or something by the time I remember her. You were so blessed.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Great tribute to your Gran! I still miss my great-grandmother too. And often feel she is still with me in spirit.
May 8th, 2008 at 8:56 am
That was a lovely tribute to your Gran. Obviously a well respected lady and loved by many as you say. You must have been very proud to have her as your Gran. It is without doubt that she will be taking care of you and will have smiled lovingly as she read your beautiful words.
CJ xx
May 9th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Great post Jo – you always make me laugh!