Gift for my Great Grandmother - What's Yours?

[StanleysChesterton]

This is a "pointless/daft"post.  Please, if this annoys you, read another

If you could go back in time and give your great-grandmother a gift what'd it be? 

It can't be something modern, but something you think she could need/use.

I did think "money" - but then that alters potential outcomes so I might not end up existing.  Even a gold sovereign might have her rushing over the road to buy a new dress and get run over by a horse/cart and die before my eyes.

So what's a gift you can give your grandmother, without being discovered as "a witch from the future" causing granny to be disowned by neighbours.... but it has to be useful/lovely or something worthwhile travelling 120+ years back in time to hand it over.  Not an ornament as that's a cop out

I think one could probably get away with a microfibre cloth to help her clean her windows better.

But what's a good gift that can't get her into trouble?

There must be some genius answers out there ....I've just not thought of them!

[SWar]

I actually knew one of my gr.grandmothers.  She was in her 90s and I was a small child.  The trouble was she was so thin and frail that she scared me and I wouldn't go near her.  I have since found out that her father died when she was small and she and her siblings spent several years in the workhouse.

So if I could go back and meet her again, I would give her a hug.

Sue

[KGarrad]

A copy of Bradshaw's Descriptive Railway Hand-Book of Great Britain and Ireland!
Maybe the 1870 edition, Section 1 Kent, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, Devon, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Wight?

Or maybe the 1860 version to cover Somerset and Dorset?

My Great-Grandfather was a railway station master on the Somerset & Dorset Railway, but they came from Suffolk, by way of Essex.

Maybe it would prime her for the days to come?!

She was born 1836 in Norfolk/Suffolk borders, and died at Bridport, Dorset in 1911.

[Treetotal]

A pair of Bootlaces as she was fined 60 shillings in 1902 for stealing a pair 
Carol

[HarrisonHart]

A family tree of her descendants in a book (including a little bio on each one, and a - colour - photo of each one!!), to show her a different perspective of the value of her life.  Its a bit witchy as my great grandparents were all deceased by the 1940s so colour photos were not around.  But on the other hand it would be easily hidden and give her a lift when she is feeling life is just rough and what is the point.  Actually I'd include her ancestors in the tree so she could see that she and her ancestors were remembered c150 years after her birth (all my great grandmothers were born between the 1840s and 1870s).  I'd also include notes about how far womens rights came along from her generation which was circa the founding generation of the suffragettes!

[Kay99]

The only photo I have of one of my great grandmother's is of a round, laughing woman.   I think she might have had a sweet tooth and would most appreciate a big bag of special chocolates

[fallingonabruise]

I'd visit my great grandma Mary Wilson, and give her some advice,
have all of your 3 husbands and 1 lover cremated instead of burying them, so that they couldn't be exhumed and get her sentenced to death (she was reprieved by the way and died in prison)
 just joking by the way, not condoning murder !

[StanleysChesterton]

Sorry ... sloped off to Lidl, came back with sweeties and forgot I'd posted

So if I could go back and meet her again, I would give her a hug.

Aww, that's lovely.  I guess I made a HUGE assumption when I picked a great-grandmother, because mine died before I was one, so I've never had/met mine.... she's just data picked from newspapers and censuses to me.

I think yours gets "Best Answer" ..... even before I've read the rest.

A copy of Bradshaw's Descriptive Railway Hand-Book of Great Britain and Ireland!
Maybe the 1870 edition, Section 1 Kent, Sussex, Hants, Dorset, Devon, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Wight?

Or maybe the 1860 version to cover Somerset and Dorset?

Ah, a good practical gift, but if you took it from "now" they'd probably bin it as it'd look a bit shabby

A pair of Bootlaces as she was fined 60 shillings in 1902 for stealing a pair 

Awww... what a strange thing to steal, unless you haven't got any of course!

Mind you, being in court that day might've caused her to have a conversation on the bus with somebody that lead to her meeting her future husband... and if she'd not been to court, she'd have done different things that day - and had different conversations other days!

A family tree of her descendants in a book

Oh I think you'd definitely get arrested by the Time Travel Police for that one!!!

The only photo I have of one of my great grandmother's is of a round, laughing woman.   I think she might have had a sweet tooth and would most appreciate a big bag of special chocolates

mmm chocolate.  The gift you can rarely get wrong!

... give her some advice, have all of your 3 husbands and 1 lover cremated instead of burying them, so that they couldn't be exhumed and get her sentenced to death ...

Oh dear.  Burial was so "the norm" back then wasn't it.  Her undoing. 

I'm intrigued as to whether you knew this story/the details before you started doing family history.  Whether it's always been known/in full/openly, or if it was a small rumour that you really had to look for

[Treetotal]

She had four sons and her husband died the following year...so she could have needed them for her boots to go to work. 60 shillings fine seems a bit steep and a lot of money in those days 
Carol