My Granny
My Granny
Jan 11, 2026
By Barbara Gross
I’ve known the meaning of unconditional love for as long as I can remember.
Not because someone explained it to me—but because I lived it. Every single day. And that love came from my grandmother.
I called her “Granny,” inspired by The Beverly Hillbillies. The name stuck, just like the role she played in my life. I wasn’t only the youngest in my immediate family—I was the baby of the entire extended family. And thanks to Granny, I always felt protected, celebrated, and deeply loved.
One of my earliest lessons came at the dinner table. My mother tried to teach me to eat with my right hand, knowing how difficult life could be for a lefty. But every time she switched the fork, I switched it back—until I cried. Granny stepped in and said, “Leave her alone. She wants to be a lefty. Let her eat in peace.” That was Granny in a nutshell: standing up for who I was before I even knew who that was.
She did that my whole life.
When my puppy Pachos got sick, Granny didn’t panic—she took action. She showed me how to make simple meatballs, boil them, and feed them to him. It worked. Pachos got better, and I learned that love shows up in practical ways. (The recipe is still a secret, by the way.)
Granny and I played games constantly—from racing raindrops down a window to board games and she always “lost.” Years later, I found out she let me win on purpose—until the day she accidentally won and laughed so hard she nearly choked. That laughter told me everything: joy mattered more to her than pride.
She defended me when I was a picky eater, laughed about her malfunctioning hearing aid, and proudly wore a crooked nightgown I sewed—because I made it with love.
Granny didn’t just tell me I mattered. She showed me.
That’s how I learned unconditional love—not through words, but through actions. Through patience. Through laughter. Through someone always being in my corner.
And no matter how old I get, I’ll always be “the baby.”
Barbara Gross was born and grew up in Massachusetts and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Education from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. Right out of College, Barbara moved to southern California & took a teaching job for four years at a Business School teaching computer software. She now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area & works as a Business Development Manager selling Computer Software & has been in the industry for over Forty years. Barbara has received numerous awards including the President’s Club for Sales & Technical Expertise from Xerox Imaging Systems / ScanSoft She originally joined the ABBYYTalk ToastMasters Club in 2012 sponsored by a previous company she worked for, ABBYY Now Barbara is a member of the Heart2Heart ToastMasters Club. Her passion is to express her love for life by showing people how being authentic & able to laugh at oneself is great fun & can be used to help achieve any goals in life or business.
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