Grandma was always so young at heart. Some of our most fond memories of her were of her playing with us. These are some of our memories in our own words.
“On one of the many days we spent at Grandma’s house my cousin Jeannie and I, who were probably around 9 or 10 years of age, decided to play with grandmas make up. We did ourselves up teasing our hair and putting on lots of makeup. By the time we were done we looked quite wild. When our fathers came to pick us up they were not pleased, seeing us the way we looked. But Grandma just looked at us and said simply “ Oh they’re just playing.”
Sunny Wadsworth
Pam Otto Babcock (first daughter of Dianna Wadsworth
Grandma loved to dance. Even at the youth dances she would be out there on the dance floor with us. She would even try to learn our dances. She would do the electric slide and every country line dance there was, they were her favorites. Regardless of the dances she learned she always reverted to the “swim dance” She was just ageless.
Sunny Wadsworth
When mom was 80 she went sledding with us at Richmond Park
Moms "play" was work. She loved picking produce and canning it. I remember going to a local farm with her one cold autumn day to pick tomatoes. She kept saying "Oh this is so much fun!" that I actually started to believe her! When we got home, she had a pot of homemade soup waiting for us. That was the fun part for me!
Moms "play" was work. She loved picking produce and canning it. I remember going to a local farm with her one cold autumn day to pick tomatoes. She kept saying "Oh this is so much fun!" that I actually started to believe her! When we got home, she had a pot of homemade soup waiting for us. That was the fun part for me!
Linda Robinson (fourth child of Nellie and Cecil Wadsworth)
As a YW President, Nellie was my Beehive adviser. She would come to all the activities and participate. That became a problem as she was 75+ and insisted on doing whatever the kids were doing: ice blocking down Richmond hill in the middle of the summer, tubing down the river in cool September water, fast dancing at the dances (she would get the kids to teach her the new moves), cleaning the side yards at Church and planting bulbs (I discovered she had never planted bulbs and consistently put them in the ground upside down-Japan has beautiful tulips today). We had to be careful when planning because we knew Nellie would try everything and we didn't want to risk her hurting herself. The girls loved her involvement.
Pamela Wadsworth (wife of David Wadsworth, first child of Nellie and Cecil Wadsworth)
What I remember best is as a Mom with 3 young kids and a husband who traveled nearly half of the year, I would send the kids over to Nellie for an afternoon once in a while (usually, she begged to have them come over). They would come back exhausted and would sleep soundly that night.:) She would start out having them make bread with her, and then they would go outside and RUN! She would get them to race with her around the farm. Then back in the house they'd put the bread into the oven and then play board games. When the bread was ready (not supposed to eat hot bread), they would eat it with homemade jam or jelly. Then, back outside for more running. I was always grateful for those days at Grandma Nellie's.
Pamela Wadsworth (wife of David Wadsworth, first child of Nellie and Cecil Wadsworth)
Sunny and I stayed at Grandma and grandpa’s house, for a stint of time every week. We would sleep together in the spare room. Grandpa had painted stars on the ceiling that would glow in the dark and we just loved that. We thought that was the best thing. On April fools day she let us take down all of grandpa’s paintings and hide them. We went around saying “Somebody stole your paintings! Somebody stole your paintings!” We would have so much fun. We would also make bread with her and form it into the shape of people and dance them around. Flour would be everywhere and she didn’t care. One time when my Mom came to get us and we were all into her make up and my mom said “You shouldn’t wear grandma’s make up” then grandma said “Oh stop! They’re just having a good time.” She just had so much fun with us.
Jeanine Sheneman Voller (fourth child of Charlene Wadsworth (Sheneman) Miller second child of Nellie and Cecil Wadsworth)
At a family get together Sunny, Jeannie and I would go up in grandma’s room. We would all look at Grandma’s jewelry. She had these earrings that had little spark plugs on them. I just loved those spark plug earrings. I thought they were the coolest things ever. But we always had to put them in Jeannie’s ears because she was the only one that had pierced ears.
Holly Wadsworth Avery (second child of David Wadsworth, first child of Nellie and Cecil Wadsworth)
When we were little kids playing at grandma’s she always helped us find magic in everyday things. She taught us how to make dolls out of Hollyhocks, picked raspberries to make jam, played in the covered sandbox, and best of all… made bread. We BEGGED to make bread every time we went there, and most of the time she would agree. We would get the flour from the huge flour barrel that would double as one of the chairs to sit on. My favorite chair was the piano bench that I could spin up high and down low. We loved to knead till our hearts content. Then we would shape them into tiny loaves that fit into her very special tiny bread pans. My favorite part was brushing the top of the loaves with melted butter. I would always sneak little peaces of bread dough to eat. Yummy!! We would make so much bread that all the counters would be filled. Once the bread was baked, we each got to eat our own mini loaves. We made sure we got the right loaf because Grandma had us mark our initials on the top. Bread never tasted so amazing, and life never was more simple.
Holly Wadsworth Avery (second child of David Wadsworth, first child of Nellie and Cecil Wadsworth)
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