Stories About Waffles, Elders and Heartwarming Moments

Everyone has a favorite memory of an elder in their life, whether it's Grandma or Grandpa. Below, I share one of my favorite memories of my maternal grandfather and stories about waffles made by my maternal grandmother. Check out the video to write about your own favorite elder memory or help someone tell their story. You can check all of the details of the 52 Weeks of Storytelling Series here.

Week 21 of 52 Weeks of Storytelling – Favorite Elder Memory

Intro To the Weekly Prompt: Favorite Elder Memory

This week's reading prompt is all about your favorite elder memory. Now, this could really be anything. It could be about an elder in your life, if you did an activity with someone, or if you took a trip or just a day in the park, or about a recipe shared with you by an elder. Those are all older memories. Remember this as a guideline. You can use any other prompt you'd like. If you have the printed pages or printed journal, feel free to write whatever you'd like in them and cross things out.

Intro to Story example: Stories About Waffles

I went back and forth about which story to share using this prompt. In one of the videos,  I shared a story about my grandmother on my dad's side. So I thought today I would share a story with you about my mom's dad. He died last year, somewhere around this time in the summer months in 2020. This memory is all about him.

Stories About Waffles and Cardinal Directions

So one of the things there's a couple of really cool memories, but one of the memories that I've been teasing my kids about has to do with him calling waffles “awful waffles”. That's been coming up because we've been talking about maps and orienteering and directions. I know directions by Never Eat Soggy Waffles, which I think is regional. But anyways, I digress. 

Getting Back to Real Story

My grandfather would always say when we would come over and sometimes we would stay for stay with them. For breakfast, I always asked for waffles. My grandmother would make them with the waffle maker. Which I thought was the coolest thing. She had a Depression Era syrup recipe she would make and heat up for us. My mom used the same recipe and I still make that syrup today.

Everytime I asked for waffles, Grandpa would say, “You don’t want those awful waffles!” 

And I would say, “Yes I do! They're not awful Grandpa!” 

It was part of the morning routine, which was usually followed by playing cards. Those mornings were some of my favorite moments with him.  After breakfast and cards, he taught me accounting using an abacu and then we talked about what was happening in the financial section of the newspaper. 

What I Want People to Remember About Awful Waffles

So what I want people to remember is that sometimes the little fun phrases are just as important as the big pieces of advice that we get from someone. Don't lose sight of the small pieces that make up a person and make up your memories of them.

What’s Next

How did your story turn out this week? I’d love to hear about it. This weekly prompt has been really fun to write about, and there are so many more prompts in our toolkit for you to explore! Check them all out right here.