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Grandmothers Quotes

Browse 27 quotes about Grandmothers.

Grandmothers Quotes

“The only reason that some people aren’t ashamed of their parents and/or siblings is because they know that we know that they did not choose them.”

FamilyBrotherShameChoiceAshamedGrandmotherGrandfatherEmbarrassedUnclesSistersGrandparentCousinAuntChooseEmbarrassmentSiblingSisterShamefulSiblingsBrothersFamiliesExtended FamilyNuclear FamiliesGrandparentsChoseGrandmothersUncleCousinsEmbarrassNuclear FamilyAuntsGrandfathersExtended Families
Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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“A cold wind rose, biting through my jacket, and I shivered. Big Ma looked down at me for the first time. “You cold?” “N-no, ma’am,” I stuttered, not ready to leave the forest. “Don’t you be lyin’ to me girl!” she snapped, putting out her hand. “It’s time we was goin’ back to the house anyways. Your mama’ll be home soon.” I took her hand, and together we left the Caroline.”

LoveHomeFamilyWarmthGrandmothersGranddaughters
Book:Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
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“[S]he made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon-day, and her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.”

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Book:The Little Match Girl
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“Big Ma never made quick-fast-in-a-hurry food. She made food that needed washing before it touched a knife, pot, or pan. Or she made beans that soaked overnight and simmered with neck bones for a good part of the next day. And stewed meat in heavy enamel pots, with bay leaves and carrots and potatoes that soaked up gravy. Big Ma cooked food meant to stick to your insides and keep your belly full. She cooked food that took time.”

LoveFamilyFoodCookingGrandmothers
Book:P.S. Be Eleven
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“On holidays, I cave in to the memory of love, and associate desserts and eating with the love I experienced at my grandmother's table. She was a great cook, and sweets crowded the side console cabinet during Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have no answer as to how to overcome this. I will try until I die, every day. Just keep trying to be well. Enough said.”

LoveTryingFamilyHealthEating DisordersHolidaysEating HabitsGrandmothersDisordered EatingTrying Again
Book:The Chiffon Trenches
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“I got into an argument in class with Danny McClaren.” “You’re in class to learn from the teacher,” Big Ma said. “Not to be arguing with some know-nothing boy.” I heard myself while I retold the whole thing. It sounded silly. Big Ma never looked up once from her sewing. ... “My teacher might call.” Might as well let the other shoe drop. “Let him call. I’ll straighten him out.” Big Ma was funny, as in hard to figure out.”

LoveFamilyHumourGrandmothers
Book:P.S. Be Eleven
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“Ah, Momma. I had never looked at death before, peered into its yawning chasm for the face of a beloved. For days my mind staggered out of balance. I reeled on a precipice of knowledge that even if I were rich enough to travel all over the world, I would never find Momma. If I were as good as God’s angels and as pure as the Mother of Christ, I could never have Momma’s rough slow hands pat my cheek or braid my hair. Death to the young is more than that undiscovered country; despite its inevitability, it is a place having reality only in song or in other people's grief.”

DeathChangeLossGriefMourningGrandmothers
Book:Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
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“Despite the raised voices and the wild gesticulations, nobody here is wrong. The beauty of ragù is that it's an idea as much as it is a recipe, a slow-simmered distillation of what means and circumstances have gifted you: If Zia Peppe's ragù is made with nothing but pork scraps, that's because her neighbor raises pigs. When Maria cooks her vegetables in a mix of oil and butter, it's because her family comes from a long line of dairy farmers. When Nonna Anna slips a few laurel leaves into the pot, she plucks them from the tree outside her back door. There is no need for a decree from the Chamber of Commerce to tell these women what qualifies as the authentic ragù; what's authentic is whatever is simmering under the lid. Eventually the women agree to disagree and the rolling boil of the debate calms to a gentle simmer. Alessandro opens a few bottles of pignoletto he's brought to make the peace. We drink and take photos and make small talk about tangential ragù issues such as the proper age of Parmesan and the troubled state of the prosciutto industry in the region. On my way out, Anna no. 1 grabs me by the arm. She pulls me close and looks up into my eyes with an earnestness that drowns out the rest of the chatter in the room. "Forget about these arguments. Forget about the small details. Just remember that the most important ingredient for making ragù, the one thing you can never forget, is love." Lisetta overhears from across the room and quickly adds, "And pancetta!”

DifferentSauceItalian CookingGrandmothersRaguNonna
Book:Pasta, Pane, Vino: Deep Travels Through Italy's Food Culture
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“One of the questions asked by al-Balkhi, and often repeated to this day, is this: Why do the children of Israel continue to suffer? My grandmother Dodo thought it was because the goyim were jealous. The seder for Passover (which is a shame-faced simulacrum of a Hellenic question-and-answer session, even including the wine) tells the children that it's one of those things that happens to every Jewish generation. After the Shoah or Endlösung or Holocaust, many rabbis tried to tell the survivors that the immolation had been a punishment for 'exile,' or for insufficient attention to the Covenant. This explanation was something of a flop with those whose parents or children had been the raw material for the 'proof,' so for a time the professional interpreters of god's will went decently quiet. This interval of ambivalence lasted until the war of 1967, when it was announced that the divine purpose could be discerned after all. How wrong, how foolish, to have announced its discovery prematurely! The exile and the Shoah could now both be understood, as part of a heavenly if somewhat roundabout scheme to recover the Western Wall in Jerusalem and other pieces of biblically mandated real estate. I regard it as a matter of self-respect to spit in public on rationalizations of this kind. (They are almost as repellent, in their combination of arrogance, masochism, and affected false modesty, as Edith Stein's 'offer' of her life to expiate the regrettable unbelief in Jesus of her former fellow Jews.) The sage Jews are those who have put religion behind them and become in so many societies the leaven of the secular and the atheist.”

ChildrenWarReligionSufferingJesusChristianityAtheismBibleWinePunishmentJealousyArroganceSelf RespectHolocaustJudaismExileSecularismJerusalemMartyrdomSurvivorsGentilesMasochism1967Will Of GodFalse ModestyGrandmothersTheodicyHellenismPassoverRabbisPassover SederHiwi Al BalkhiSix Day WarBiblical CovenantDivine RetributionEdith SteinRationalisationWestern Wall
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“Anyway, thanks to Bob, that Christmas, my mother bought my grandmother and myself both vibrators. Now, as unusual as a gift like this sounds, you have to admit that they are the ideal stocking stuffers. I mean, you can fit the vibrator into the long top part of the stocking and still be able to get another cute little gift in the toe. Well, I have to admit, I enjoyed mine but my grandmother refused to use hers. She was concerned that it would short-circuit her pacemaker. She said she'd gone this long without an orgasm, she might as well go the whole way. And that pacemaker, by the way, was later recalled.”

Family RelationshipsOrgasmsGrandmothersSex ToysVibratorsChristmas GiftsStocking StuffersPacemaker
Book:Wishful Drinking
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