NYC grandmothers share the joys of ‘grandmotherhood’
EAST FLATBUSH, Queens (PIX11) — As Mother’s Day comes to a close, PIX11 News is celebrating grandmothers and the positive impact they can have on their grandchildren.
“It’s my pleasure,” Camilla Simon-Felix, a grandmother, told PIX11 News. “I bring them into the world and I keep on helping them. I am very very lucky,” she added. She’s called Macca and is the beloved grandmother of an East Flatbush family.
Camilla Simon-Felix grew up in Grenada but raised her five children in Brooklyn. Now she’s helping to raise several of her grandchildren in the home she shares with her husband.
It’s a Grenadian tradition that her daughter Thereshia loves, with three generations under one roof.
“She gets to form a relationship with them,” Thereshia said. “My grandmother lived in Grenada. We were here. I didn’t get to see her that often. When she stayed with us for six months it was nice. They get that on a daily basis. She says she doesn’t spoil them, but she does,” she added, with a loving laugh.
8-year-old Allison and 10-year-old Ethan love cooking their favorite West Indian dishes with Macca and going for walks in the neighborhood — even in the rain. They love everything about their Macca.
“I like Macca because when you’re walking to school, she walks with us because she worries someone could take us,” Allison, eight years old, told PIX11 News. “And she cooks for us,” she added while giving her grandmother a hug and a kiss.
Of course, not all grandmothers can or want to be so involved. Perhaps logistics, financial constraints, or jobs keep them living apart from their grandkids.
In Bay Ridge, Theresa Monforte-Caraballo founded a nonprofit, Grandma’s Love, 10 years ago to help families suffering tough times.
“I may have five grandchildren, but I have over 300 children that I help,” Caraballo said.
Monforte-Caraballo detailed all the supplies she collects and distributes, which included weekly bags of groceries for families in five Brooklyn schools and brand-new books to be placed in free vending machines in children’s hospitals.
“The world has a lot to offer,” Monforte Caraballo told PIX11 News. “Open your mind. Open a book open your ears and your eyes. See what’s going on. Keep it going. Keep this grandma going,” she added.
Monforte-Carabalo and PIX11’s Magee Hickey share the same sentiments about cherishing their grandkids.
Hickey’s mother prioritized sharing her love and devotion to her four children and 11 grandkids. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Hickey makes sure to visit her three grandchildren who live blocks away from her in Brooklyn Heights almost every day.
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