My grandmother and I wanna thank all the people who were kind and wanted to hear more of their story. I just want to reiterate that this group is called “the way we were” and this is the reality of some peoples stories. She had many friends who married around the same age as her, also they met each other in middle school and the rest was history. I think it’s easy to judge situations that you couldn’t understand but it’s important to not push everyone into a narrative, that while important, can also undervalue entire family dynamics. They did not have a shotgun wedding (sorry I know that a lot of you will not believe me anyways.) They both came from poor families so it’s not like the marriage was arranged transactionally. They came from nothing a built a better life together. We were all raised with so much love and understanding. This lady would meet a hungry or homeless stranger and give them a meal and a place to sleep. I am in no way condoning getting married that young, even she would tell me I was crazy if I tried to pull that lol, but please keep in mind it was a very different time and we didn’t know then what we do now. I’m so happy for you that your parents/grandparents had the resources at the time to wait until they were in their 20s-30s to start building their lives but that wasn’t the reality for a lot of people. sometimes you can find the light in the dark and they had one of those stories and it’s worth telling.
by cherrriiibomb
5 Comments
Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful family history. It really was a different time. My Mum and Dad got together when they were 14 and got married on my Mum’s 19th birthday in 1969. They’ve had many, many ups and downs through the years but are still together all these years later ❤️
Different times. Happy she got the life she wanted. My mom was 17 when she married my dad. He figured she was the best person he knew to have the insurance money when he was killed in the war. Well.. they almost made it to 50 years.. Good times and bad. But its just life and things are viewed differently now.
Tell your grandma thank you for taking this as well as she is!
It seems her and your grandpa loved eachother very much, had mutual respect and built a wonderful life together. Yes, they got an early start on it, but that’s the best outcome anyone could hope for!
My mom was 17 when she married my dad. It was at the beginning of WWII. It was not a shotgun wedding either.
Dad survived the war. They raised 4 kids. He passed in 2005, she passed in 2020.
It was for sure a different time.
My grandma married by grandpa when she was 16 and he was 25. Nine years later, she was a widow with 5 kids when he did not survive the war.