Nita Prose on the Grandma Era and how it never really left us

Heard of the ‘Grandma Era’ hitting young women across Australia? Author NITA PROSE explains the age of the ‘old soul’ never really left us.

When baking became bad-ass and crocheting became cool, NITA PROSE realised she was not alone.

Some people become grandmas later in life; others are born grandmas. I was born a grandma – not literally, of course, since that’s biologically impossible. But from a very young age, I adopted the ways of older women. I’ve always had an appreciation for arts and crafts, an abiding love for homemade cookies, soups, and jam, and a penchant for gardening and reading (though never at the same time).

By the time I was five, I was called an “old soul” with alarming regularity. I considered this the highest of compliments … until I realised later in life that this was the polite way of saying I was a bit out of step, both with my peers and with time in general. Unlike the sporty, Walkman-wearing kids of my generation, my head was always in a book. In fact, I was reading indoors so much, it’s a wonder I didn’t contract rickets from a lack of sunshine. But beyond reading, I also loved tea and doilies, sewing and embroidery, antiques and thrift stores, Murder She Wrote and The Golden Girls. Let me just say that interests such as these didn’t garner a kid much street cred in the eighties.

Nita Prose.. Picture: Tony Hanyk

Now, imagine me as an adult – fully grown and over the age of 50. Am I any less of a grandma? Far from it. Now, imagine my delight when during the pandemic, the “grandma era” came into fashion. Suddenly, millennials and Gen Z-ers (ergo, really young people) were adopting the ways of women two or three times their age. Suddenly, it was hip to be a homebody. Baking bread was bad-ass, and crocheting was cool. To my utter shock, for the first time in my life, I was a trendsetter ahead of my time instead of behind it. Lo and behold, my collection of vintage porcelain teacups prompted interest rather than eye rolls, and just like that, the hand-stitched lone-star quilt my mother made me decades ago wasn’t an old-fashioned relic but a valuable work of folk art.

At the same time as the grandma trend was taking hold, my debut novel, The Maid, was being published around the world. I received countless notes from readers who identified both with Molly, the hotel maid and “old soul” who’s the star of the story, as well as with her dearly departed grandmother. In The Maid, Molly is lost without her gran’s guidance, struggling to navigate the baffling complexities of the social world. And yet, though Gran is dead when the novel opens, Molly hears her voice. Her grandmother’s traditional sayings repeat in a mobius loop in Molly’s mind:

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Good things come to those who wait.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.

Do any of these sayings sound familiar? Perhaps, like me, you had wise, old women repeating them to you, too.

Here’s the thing about grandmothers: we all need one. As women all over the world examine their lives, their yearning for the grandma era intensifies – and it goes far deeper than just taking up the hobbies and habits of grannies. Women crave a wise and strong matriarch who reminds us that when the stress of modern living is too much to bear, we need to take things slowly and return to our roots. As grandmothers everywhere know, there’s restorative magic in the creature comforts of food and family, hearth and home.

In creating Gran in The Maid, I wasn’t only conjuring my inner grandma but offering readers an idealised one – the kind who greets you with a cup of tea after a long, hard day; who listens patiently and gives sage advice; and who wraps unconditional love around you like a warm blanket.

If, like me, you’ve always been considered an “old soul,” I suspect you’re thrilled the grandma era is back. But let’s be clear: it never really left. Also, it will never really die. The voices of the wise, old women who came before us echo through time even as they transcend it.

It’s exactly like Grandma always said: everything old is new again.

Molly returns in Nita Proses latest book The Mystery Guest, out now published by HarperCollins. Tell us what you think at The Sunday Book Club group on Facebook.

And check out our Book Of The Month, Cain’s Jawbone – yours for 33 per cent off the RRP with the code JAWBONE at Booktopia.

Originally published as Nita Prose on the Grandma Era and how it never really left us