When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

My mother was brought up by two maiden aunts, Aunt Cissie and Aunt Josie. She was sent to live with them as some of her siblings had died of TB.

Aunt Josie was a kindly lady who had been a nurse, she had never married as her fiancé had gone to war and was killed.
Aunt Cissie, had been a headmistress, she was strict and stern looking.
I remember when the two of them visited us, they wore those fur stoles around their shoulders with animal’s heads dangling down the front of them..

Aunt Cissie was the scariest. When we visited them in their house in Tipperary, they had oil lamps as there was no electricity.
My sister and l slept in Aunt Cissie’s room and we were scared watching her as she sat in front of her dressing table mirror, undid her bun and brushed her long white hair.
When we saw her reflection in the mirror, we both hid under the blankets, she looked like a witch!!

Do you have, or can you remember being scared by any of your relatives?

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

I couldn't stand my paternal grandmother, the evil b*tch used to keep telling me, from the age of two, that I would burn in hell if I didn't follow her very nasty version of Christianity! The day she died in her 90s was a very happy day for me, it is just a pity she didn't kick the bucket many years earlier.

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

Most of the buggers!

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

Oh yes not scared me but I thought she was rather strange. She was my grandmother on dads side . She was married 3 times and was blind , when young a beauty but lost her sight about the age of 30 I guess with macular degenerative disease I believe . She talked extremely posh and wore fox furs with dead heads and beady eyes . She insisted we kids called her GAGA . She wore full make up with bright red lipstick which was like crayon over her face , full eye make up and pinky face powder .

Whenever we went to see her my brothers would push me first inline for the red lipstick suck on my face my little thin legs squiggling to escape as GAGA clasped me in her hands and the fox face touching me as I was sucked into a face full of make up . Then each sibling got the GAGA kiss .

I was never close to her , yet she was never unkind but a very distant grandparent . I'm sad now that I didn't really acknowledge her blindness and be more considerate towards her . I had no other grandparents

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

Yes, my Uncle, Dad's brother, he was horrible & a drinker.

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

Yes, my paternal grandparents. She was a right royal battleaxe and he was a very strict disciplinarian.

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

I wasn't scared of her but my grandmother on my mums side was a nasty woman, she didn't like any of my mothers children as my mother was the black sheep, she favoured my twin aunties and their children. She was do mean and horrible to my mother yet all mum ever tried to do was please her. I cant believe they were cut from the same cloth, my mother was the most gentlest kindest person you could ever meet .

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

I had an Uncle, or one of those people small children are told to call 'Uncle.'
He never actually did anything wrong, but he used to give me the creeps.

When he kissed us hello or bye bye, I didn't like it because he always seemed to have a horrid wet mouth and seemed to hang on to me that bit too long.
I remember telling my Mum I didn't like him kissing me.

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

My father's second wife was very mentally ill and she would erupt into violence for the slightest reason, real or imagined. She once picked up my half-sister (about 5 or 6 months old at the time) from her cot and threw her at my father. She missed and baby continued onwards towards a large pane of glass in the living room window. My father somehow grabbed the baby in mid-flight and she suffered just a scare that set her howling. He gave my half-sister to me and he and my stepmother lunged at each other, hissing with rage, and had a no-holds barred punch-up with blood going in all directions.

Sundry other explosive rages by my stepmother featured knives, pans of boiling fat, plus anything and everything used as missiles. Happy times... She just about put me off women for life.

Re: When You Were Little, Did You Ever Have A Relative That Scared You?

I was intimidated by my maternal grandfathers second wife. A thin angular woman with permanent pursed lips and evil thin eyes. She taught me to bake bread, fair enough but step out of line (in her view) and goodness, she had this habit of nipping me really painfully and on the sly. I hated being near her.