Mary Engelbreit - Aint Life Grand!: A Treasury for Grandmothers

Andrews McMeel Publishing has made every effort to contact the copyright holders. : Excerpted from The Girls with the Grandmother Faces by Frances Weaver. Copyright 1996 Frances Weaver. Reprinted by permission of Hyperion. All rights reserved. : Excerpted from In My Grandmothers House by Bonnie Christensen copyright 2003 by Bonnie Christensen.

Published by Harper Collins Childrens Books. All right reserved. Used with permission. : From The Grannies by Pat Cummings copyright 2003 by Pat Cummings. Reprinted by permission of the author. : From Charms for the Easy Life by Kaye Gibbons, copyright 1993 by Kaye Gibbons.

Used by permission of G.P. Putnams Sons, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. : My Grandmothers Hands by Arlene Callie Hills. Lyrics copyright 1997 by Arlene Callie Hills. Reprinted by permission of the author.

B oth of my grandfathers died before I was born, but my grandmothers lived until I was in my teens.

Boy, did they live! Mine were not the stereotypical, folksy grandmothers of storybooks with aprons always on and silver hair done up in tidy buns. Both my grandmothers, who incidentally had been friends in girlhood, were vibrant, opinionated, funny, and sophisticated women. They had full lives, lots of friends, andI remember this so wellreally beautiful clothes. I remember as a girl getting to go out to lunches with my mother, my aunt, and my moms mother (who many readers know was the original Ann Estelle). My sister and I loved listening to the grown-up conversations, feeling privileged just to be a part of what I felt was such a glamorous and worldly group of women. They seemed not so much like a different generation as a different breed entirely.

Ann Estelle was a true characterelegant and refined, but also a real flirt, and really cute. She raised my mother and aunt in the same mold, and those two generations had a lot in common. As for me, Im not often accused of being glamorous, but I think that my grandmothers love of life and sense of humor has managed to trickle down. My paternal grandmother was equally elegant but more hands-on with my sisters and me. She baby-sat us regularly and loved making a fuss over us. She would make us beautiful dresses and always brought us white gloves on Easter.

She would do our nails, which we thought was the most exotic thing in the world. I remember that she used to comb my hair and tell me that it was just like spun gold. (If that isnt a grandmotherly thing to say, I dont know what is.) One by one, now, the little girls I grew up with are becoming grandmothers, too. Because we are still friends all these years later, we have the privilege of swapping grandchild stories just as we have shared so many things over the years. When I think of my own grandmothers now, they do seem to belong to a different age. After all, a grandmother today is just as likely to go on a ten-mile bike ride with her granddaughter as sew her a new outfit.

But the essence of what my grandmothers passed along to me still holds value today. It was from their strong example that I learned to carry myself proudly, live every minute of life, believe in myself, and behave like a proper lady (most of the time, anyway). But perhaps more than anything else, what my grandmothers showed me was how to grow older gracefully. For that, I am eternally grateful. I compiled this book as a tribute to grandmothers both new and experienced. Families just wouldnt be complete without them.

Yours,

Aint Life Grand! a Treasury for Grandmothers B eing grandparents sufficiently removes us from the responsibilities so that we can be friends. Allan Frome For my darling grandmothers, Ann Estelle and Bess Aint Life Grand? A Treasury for Grandmothers copyright 2007 by Mary Engelbreit Ink. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews. For information, write Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, an Andrews McMeel Universal company, 4520 Main Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64111. and Mary Engelbreit are registered trademarks of Mary Engelbreit Enterprises, Inc.

ISBN: 9781449429850 Library of Congress Control Number: 2006931421 Compiled by Patrick Regan www.andrewsmcmeel.com www.maryengelbreit.com from Funny, You Dont Look Like a Grandmother by Lois Wyse, copyright 1989 by Lois Wyse. Illustrations copyright 1989 by Lilla Rogers. Used by permission of Crown Publishers, a division of Random House.

I t is as grandmothers that our mothers come into the fullness of their grace. Christopher Morley