A Grandmother Remembers

I recently put order in some of my genealogy memorabilia and came across a spiral-bound booklet titled Grandmother Remembers: A Book of Special Memories for the Family to Share that I forgot I had. I bought it a few years ago with the intention of recording my mother’s memories for my son Nicholas, but I only got as far as pencilling in a handful of responses based on the prompts in the booklet.

I’ll probably never add more memories to Grandmother Remembers, so I thought I’d transcribe what I have in a blog post. (Mom’s words are quotation marks.)

• Mom said she was named “Jacqueline”, because “my mother liked that name”.

• Mom had a nickname – “Ki-kine” (it rhymes with Jacqueline). She told me, “Oncle Léon Desgroseilliers first called me that”. 

• Mom’s youngest sister Jeanne d’arc “was called Bébé until she was about 9 or 10 years old”.

• Mom said that some of her father Eugène’s favorite foods were spaghetti (he “loved that”) and baked beans (he “would bake them outside in the hot sand in summer”).

• Mom remembered one traditional family custom: “Christmas stockings”.

Jacqueline with her mother Juliette (ca 1946)

• Mom told me that she called her mother “Maman”. She described her as about 5’4”, with brown eyes and dark brown hair. Mom remembers that she was “quiet”, “pretty”, and “couldn’t speak English much and had me [Jacqueline] translate for her”.

Recording memories and good intentions … but at least it’s a little bit more than what I had before!

Copyright © 2018, Yvonne Demoskoff.