The Nanas and the Papas

George, Olive Mapstone, Mum and Dad, June and Milton Coffin

I almost envy friends from ethnic backgrounds who had Nonnas, Nonnis, Opas and Omas etc. It sounds so cultural, almost romantic.

I don't know why but my parents chose Nana and Papa as the title for my grandparents and great grandparents. For which I still hold a fondness for that title.

In my own situation there are only a few grandparents for which my inlaws were already Nan and Pop so we went along with those titles. My side are Granddad for my father and grandma for my now deceased Grandmother (my mum never had the chance to get a title)

We did have a curious situation in our family as for a little kid there was a lot of confusion with so many grandparents and great grandparents. My parents chose an interesting way to make it clear who was who.

My parents chose to link the grandparents with their pets to make it easy, so this was the situation

on mums side
her parents Milton and June Coffin (I will blog more about the names)
( just imagine calling your grandmother Nana Coffin)
their dogs were called Taffy (welsh corgi)

so they were Taffy Nana and Papa

my grandmothers Mum and Dad- Eliza(beth) and George Bailey

they had a bird called Georgie

so they became Georgie Nana and Papa

on Dads side, his parents George and Olive Mapstone

they originally had a dog called Peppie, then later a dog called Dinkie

so they were orinally Peppie Nana and Papa then later Dinkie Nana and Papa

my grandfathers Mum Elizabeth was only ever known by us as Gran

So how do you as a parent choose the title of your childrens grandparents? Are you still formal or do you just use names etc? i'd be interested to know.

The Green Egg's got Ingrings

Firstly whenever you ask my 3 year old what her name she says she is a Green Egg,

I have no idea why, but she is a green egg apparently, and everyone in the family has a coloured egg assigned to them. Her favouite colour is green and she has to carry with her a green pillow which is painful as there are very few bottle green pillow cases out there.

Here is a conversation we have

what are you--a green egg
what about mum- a blue egg
what about Dad (me)- a green egg
what about your sister- a pink egg
what about nan- an orange egg
what about poppy- a blue egg
what about your aunt- a red egg
what about your uncle- a black egg (blows raspberry)
what about you- a green egg
are you a furry egg- I'm a green egg
are you a scrambled egg- I'm a green egg

This conversation goes round in circles but we get the same answer, she is a green egg.

Needless to say there is no question what type of egg to get her this year for easter.

So we were at shopping a couple of days ago and she started asking for ispeerse and ingrings. It took a while to work out it was earrings she was asking for.

So my wife took her off to get earrings and aside from the initial cry, she is happy, showing off her new Ingrings. She even turns them everyday although she doesn't like the spray.

Leave a Legacy

The recent passing of my aunt, my mums sister, prompted me to think about something my own mum never had the managed to complete. Life is so temporary, can end all of a sudden leaving a vacuum.

Even though mum knew that she had a terminal disease, her health deteriorated very quickly and she was unable to complete what she set out to do.

What she wanted to do was write us each a letter explaining who she was, her history, some advice and just some words.

Other items that she managed to arrange was birthday presents, weddig presents and a present for each of our first child.


Unfortunately mum was not able to complete everything she wanted to do. She was only able to get one letter written for my eldest sister. All i have is video footage and her handwritten recipes, they are her legacy for me. At times when i miss her I miss the fact she didn't get everything down. There's so much i would love to ask her, especially as I now have a family.

So stop now, write down a list of what sort of legacy you want to leave. Make sure your family are aware you love them. Remember you life could end tomorrow.