Our Stories of Home is a series of works by writers from the NHS Restart Project Writing Group in Bridgeton, Glasgow. As part of Arkbound’s Bridging Divides During the Cost of Living Crisis project in early 2025, one of our authors, John McGlade joined the NHS Restart Project’s long-running Writing Group for two sessions to work with the group on developing a piece of writing on a theme of their choosing. Together, they decided to focus on stories of home and produced some beautiful, personal pieces about places they call home.
Here is AnneMarie’s piece about her Nana and Grandpa’s:
Nana and Grandpa’s
A place I would call home is my nana and grandpa’s. They always had family around, when their children and grandchildren came to visit.
I used to smell my nana’s baking— scones, or her own bread, plus rhubarb and apple pies. I was pretty fussy (I didn’t like rhubarb or apple pies, or her homemade mince, or steakpies), but there was always good food being put down to you.
My brother and I stayed with my grandparents for a good while.
They used to grow their own vegetables out the back. It was a large back garden, with a rockery with plants in it. The next door neighbour had a massive tree in her garden. (This is how we used to spot my nana’s house from a distance!) Eventually the tree had to get cut down.
The back garden had lots of things for us to do outdoors—swingball, paddling pools…
In the summer we made our own games, sitting beside the fresh washing that was blowing in the breeze. I used to make daisy chains with a friend or two.
I remember my nana having a clock in the living room called The Weather Clock. The lady would come out, then the man would come out, when it was sunny or raining.
When my brother and I were at secondary school, my nana and grandpa were always the rulers, and we respected them (not like some children nowadays!)
When we came home from school, the pack of cards were out, or lego: things to entertain us while dinner was prepared and put on the table. Sometimes old Chrismas cards were cut up for creative things to do.
As I grew older, things changed. My nana’s house was bought. I had my children. My grandad passed away, and never saw my second child. After my grandad passed, things in the house started to change. Its decoration changed for the better, becoming more up to date.