A wonderful grandmother

This is my paternal grandmother, Fannie Charlotte Green Thompson. She was born December 4, 1874 and died in August 1966, almost 92 years old. She was the grandparent that I remember most from my childhood since both of my grandfathers were dead before I was born and my maternal grandmother passed away when I was 6 years old.

Grandma was English and quite reserved and "proper". I can never remember her being affectionate in the way of hugs and kisses, but I certainly always knew that she loved me and all of her family. She was a very smart and independent person. Education was very important to her and she saw to it that her children all went on to school. My father and his two sisters and one brother were all college graduates. Grandma was a member of the first class of Snow Academy, which is now Snow College.

She and my grandpa had a farm and a herd of cattle. When grandpa died in the 1930's, grandma hired a man to do the physical labor and she took care of the business end of the farming and ranching. She never wanted her sons to "stay on the farm", but encouraged them to make something better for themselves.

Grandma was a hard worker. I remember, as a small child, going to grandma's house often. As I found out later, my dad, being the son that still lived in Utah, would go and help grandma with things in the summers. Her home was always warm and inviting. She still had a coal stove in the kitchen when I was small, made her own soap, had pigs out back and a large barn or grainery and had a washer with a ringer and had to hang clothes outside to dry (summer and winter). With all our "conveniences", it is hard to imagine the physical labor it took just to do everyday chores.
It was a delightful place for a child to play. There were hollyhocks to make dolls out of and neighbor kids to play with. Sleeping in grandma's upstairs rooms was an adventure, especially in the winter when the only heat up there came from the stove in the kitchen. Brrrr, it was cold and we would climb under the covers that were big heavy quilts, so heavy that a small child found it impossible to even turn over. Grandma would come with a warm brick, wrapped in a towel and put it by our feet. There was no way you would get out, even for a nature call, until the next morning when grandma would fire up the kitchen stove for breakfast and the heat would begin to warm those upstairs rooms. Wafting up with the warmth would be the smell of bacon or sausage to finally tempt you to run as fast as you could and get your clothes on to be with grandma in the toasty warm kitchen.
Grandma was one of the most fair-minded people you could ever know. She had a way, without the overt show of affection, to make you know you were a most special person to her. She is the one that taught me to crochet, as she was an expert. She made a tablecloth for each grandchild that consisted of 144 medallions that she crocheted separately and then put them together into a beautiful cloth. This was made of very fine thread and they are beautiful. I still have mine today. She was also an expert quilter and would make beautiful scrap quilts out of fabric from clothes that had been worn out or grown out of. My quilt was a "flower garden" quilt made of little hexagons, each cut out separately, pieced together by hand and then put together and quilted by hand. Grandma would be totally amazed today at the big single armed machine quilters that can do the job in such a short time. I have a feeling she would opt for the old way and the great satisfaction that comes from a project that you have spent many many hours putting together and finishing with your own two hands.
Somehow, I always thought I was grandma's favorite. Perhaps it was because from my earliest memories, she would come to Price on my birthday. How ever and whatever she had to do, she would be there for my special day. Interestingly, when talking to my cousins, they all had the same feeling. Grandma had such a way of making each one feel special. My aunt Alta lost her husband at a young age and moved back to Ephraim with her three children, the youngest only 6 weeks old. Grandma really did pretty much raise that little one as my aunt had to go back and finish school and then taught for many years in Ephraim. With her great capacity to show love and be fair to all, I was an adult and married and grandma was gone when I found out that Johnny was really grandma's favorite. Who would have thought!
Aunt Alta finally did marry again when her children were grown. She moved to Price and grandma eventually came to live with her. I was a teenager at the time and got to see grandma a lot more.
I would say that if one has to grow up with only one grandparent, this one was the best. She was an example of hard work, intelligence, honesty, faith, integrity, love, fairness, and any other virtue that I can think of to describe her. Someday I will see her again and it will be joyous!