Grandmas come in all kinds of packages: soft, strict, funny, stubborn, mischievous, or quietly heroic. But no matter their style, they leave fingerprints on our hearts in ways no one else can. These real stories show just how much love, strength, humor, and grit grandmothers carry with them… and how deeply their families feel it.My maternal grandma was a farm wife who taught herself to cook after she got married. Her 9 grandchildren loved her farm breakfast.Bacon or sausage. Oatmeal. Eggs cooked to order. Bisquick biscuits or blueberry muffins. Even as teens and young adults, we dragged ourselves out of bed to have her.

When I was little, around four, I would walk up to my grandma and say, “Granny, can we go to the fairies?” Then she would take me to a really cool place in her garden, where she had grown vines to form a roof.She placed a napkin down and told me to go inside and come back in a couple of hours. When I did, there would be freshly baked treats on the napkin. Twenty-two years later, I still think about it.When I was about 4 years old, my grandma came for a visit. She brought chocolate along. I love chocolate. My mom forbade me from eating it.A few days later, my mom left me with my grandma while she and my dad ran some errands. As grandparents do, she always spoiled me and let me have as much chocolate as I wanted. Suddenly, my parents returned. I began to cry, my mouth filled with delicious, prohibited chocolate.It was then that my grandma bestowed upon me one of life’s most enduring lessons. Roughly translated (my grandma didn’t speak English), “If you put it in your mouth, they can’t take it away from you.