Peggy Jones (4 Aug 1933 - 18 Jun 2025)

Love you to the moon and back Grandma, always and forever ❤️❤️

Most of my fondest childhood memories revolve around my Grandma. I am sure you all have your own funny stories and memories of her but here are some of mine.

All of you that know me well know that I love my food, and for everyone else you can see that I like my food. I credit this to my Grandma.

Growing up I used to love spending time at Grandma’s, whether it be cycling up and cleaning her windows for a bit of pocket money, or going for sleepovers, no matter the reason it always involved food…and lots of it.

Breakfasts were always something to look forward to. A feast that would not have looked out of place at Hogwarts. I remember it vividly, I would come downstairs in the morning and head into the kitchen at Tennessee Road and take my seat at the little breakfast bar, glass of orange juice waiting. Breakfast would always start with 1 or 2 of those little snack sized boxes of cereal, followed by a full English that may as well of been all you can eat. Even if it was just me staying there Grandma always over cooked.

It was normally around this time that Grandad would wake up, come down and toast practically a whole loaf and plonk it in front of you.

Safe to say you never left Grandma’s house with an empty stomach.

Every visit you could guarantee the biscuit barrel would be well stocked, there would be cold sausages cooked and ready in the fridge alongside sliced up fridge cold mars bars.

This leads nicely onto of Grandma and mines other passions…Football, and more importantly her beloved Derby County….and you guessed it more food.

Derby moved into their new stadium and me, Dad, Grandma and Grandad all had season tickets. North Stand lower week in week out watching the mighty Rams (back before all the money made it less competitive) when we could beat the likes of Arsenal, Man Utd and Liverpool. Grandma and Grandad sat directly behind us. You would be sat in your seat as the fans were chanting to the likes of David Seaman to tell us what the score was, when you would get a foil package passed between the seats. Cold sausages, pork pie, sandwiches, you name it Grandma had it. I still to this day do not know where she stashed it all. There is no way it would fit in her “hooligan coat” as I liked to call it, this coat is where I always told her she kept her brass knuckles.

Those were the best times.

Not all my memories revolve around food…. although it is never far away. Grandma was always very active with us as children. She never shied away from adventuring and exploring the local area with us. She would climb in the Brook and help us catch sticklebacks. She would sneak onto the grounds of Lee’s Brook school and play tennis with us. Her and Grandad would quite often come to Willows and watch me play football.

Grandma was always the softie when it came to her and Grandad. If you ever went up for sponsorship Grandad would always want some handwriting or a drawing before he would sponsor you which always deflated me, but as I would leave Grandma would always pull me in for a cuddle and put some money in my hand for sponsorship, Grandad never knew this, and then ended up sponsoring me again after I had done what was requested.

It is not all happy memories though. She once took me and Amy to Chad Park. Where me and her stood watching as Amy jumped into and out of the emptied paddling pool over the side of it. Not wanting to be out done, I decided to join in. Believe it or not there was a time that I was in fact shorter than Amy. My little legs just weren’t quite big enough; I caught my foot on the lip of the pool and smashed my face onto the bare concrete. Which resulted in a huge nosebleed. It’s fine you might think, Grandma always had tissues on her, or even a hanky. Not on this occasion though. The only thing she had to “stem the bleeding” was a brown paper bag. Which as you can imagine did nothing. I would remind her quite often of this, right up into adulthood, it would always bring one of her beautiful smiles out.

Getting older we went on holiday to Spain with Grandma and Grandad a couple of times and stayed in a villa, and one time in particular, we were all out eating at a restaurant. The sangria order was placed…” No Ice” Grandma proclaimed, and what a night it turned out to be. Culminating in Grandma very drunk belting out songs off the balcony at the villa. Highly amusing and again something that sort of became a running joke with her.

Grandma was most definitely a family person, who loved having her family around her. She was very proud of all her Grandchildren and what we got up to in our lives. During our younger years I remember us doing lots as a family and Grandma’s house was the hub. I remember a time we all went down into the fields and built one of the biggest snowmen I think I have ever seen. But there would always be get togethers, music, singing and you guessed it FOOD! I told you it’s never far away.

This continued as we all grew up and started to have our own children. Although not as often these were still memorable to me, particularly the time we hired a bouncy castle and sumo suits.

If there was one thing that Grandma loved more than her Grandchildren and Derby County it was most definitely her Greatgrandchildren a role which she thoroughly cherished. Known to them as Great Grandma, Grandma Derby, GG and Grandma Peggy. She loved hearing all their tales as they grew. She proudly displayed photos of them all as well as an art wall fit for the finest art galleries of all their creations. Her bungalow was a treasure trove for them all, books, Lego, bikes galore, football goals and one or two broken garden ornaments (boys I am looking at you).

She instilled in me a love of football a love which she passed on to Corey. When he turned 18 last year, it was inevitable that his gift from her would be a Derby County shirt. All 4 boys however got my love of food passed on to them.

So, Grandma I can’t let you go empty handed. I have packed you some things that will go with you on your journey.

• One last Derby County shirt
• Cold sausages and a chopped-up Mars, all wrapped in foil.
• Finally, a brown paper bag…just in case.

I love you Grandma, Matthew