Describe your grandparents

I will start with Grandma Bredensteiner. As a little boy, I don't have a ton of memories about going to Grandma Bredensteiner's house very much. She was a little tiny lady with big glasses. She didn't have much hair and always wore a dark wig. She had a little head shake - maybe Parkinson's? - and she would put her hands up to her face and hold her chin with her fingers. I remember her looking at me and her head shaking a little bit but her eyes would never leave me. She was very gentle - firm but gentle - and had lots and lots of love. I remember her hugging me and hold me on her lap as a very young child. She had a great laugh and I can still hear her laughter in my mind. Grandma didn't drive and would walk everywhere. She lived at 309 Clark Street and would walk down to the hospital to eat occasionally. I can remember driving down First Capitol Drive and seeing Grandma in the windows as she was sitting there eating dinner. I can also remember driving down Kingshighway and seeing her walking down the road. I was a pretty new driver and I pulled over to ask her if she wanted a ride. I picked her up in my orange Maverick and took her back home. I remember that she told me that I was such a good driver! Not sure why that really sticks in my head but I guess that a compliment from your Grandma was a pretty big deal to me. I also remember that Grandma Bredensteiner would dance with my Dad at every wedding reception. I think that Dad was her favorite and he would spend a lot of time with her and would "dote" on her a lot. My Hollander grandparents lived at 918 North Fourth Street. They bought this house when my Dad was very little and lived there their entire lives. I have great memories inside of that house and spending time with my grandparents. Grandpa Hollander was a small and round man. He walked with a limp and had arthritis very bad in his hands and knees. He was bald and overweight but full of laughter. I have great memories of him laughing big with his mouth wide open and his head thrown back. My most vivid memories are of him sitting on the front porch in the summer time in a lawn chair with a transistor radio while listening to the Cardinal games. Their house was a shotgun house - three rooms downstairs and a very small upstairs with one big bedroom....Living room in the front, bedroom in the middle and kitchen in the back. You had to walk through their bedroom to get to the kitchen. Grandpa hated Mike Shannon - just couldn't stand to listen to him on the radio. Used to cuss him out all of the time. Even when the Cardinals were playing well, Grandpa would cuss at the radio because he couldn't stand Shannon. Sitting on their front porch, listening to Cardinal games on Grandpa's orange radio are some of my greatest memories as a kid. Grandma Hollander was a tall and strong woman. She seemed so poised and strong. She stayed in the back of the house and worked in the kitchen mostly. She smoked and would sit on the back porch or at the kitchen desk to smoke. They had a very small built-in desk in their kitchen and I remember her being there most of the time. They had a small backyard and we would run around the sidewalk to the backyard and play back there. The sidewalk around the house was on a slight hill and we would take our wagon and ride down the sidewalk and into the backyard...trying to make the turn at the bottom of the hill and continue all the way down to the alley. They had a birdbath in the middle of their backyard and it was surrounded by these crazy looking rocks that had sparkles and crystals all over them. My Uncle Ronnie gave me one of those rocks and I have it my backyard now. Great childhood memories....I remember a lot of love and laughter at both houses. I never knew my Grandpa Bredensteiner because he passed away while Mom was still in high school from brain cancer. I also remember a lot of sickness in the Hollander house. Grandpa had a bad heart and arthritis. He had several heart attacks when I was a young adult and I was with him when he passed away. Lori and I were driving somewhere and we passed Fourth Street and saw an ambulance at their house. I turned around and went up to the house and saw the paramedics working on Grandpa who was on his bedroom floor but I could see him through the little windows on the front door. I stayed outside until they transported him to the hospital and then went inside and stayed there. He passed away that same night. He died on March 1. I remember feeling so sad that he would not get to see his first Great Grandchild.... My Grandma Bredensteiner passed away 17 days later on March 17. My Dad's Dad and my Mom's Mom passed away in the same month. I served as a pallbearer at my Grandpa's funeral but did not go to my Grandma's. We had a vacation trip planned to go to Colorado to ski with the Gettman's and all of our expenses were going to be shared. We had planned to drive to Colorado but we stayed for the funeral visitation and then flew to Denver to meet the Gettman's there. They had expenses lined up and were counting on us to share in those costs and we couldn't leave them hanging. I regret missing her funeral.