The Matriarch Meetings
Charity Nighwonger
Grandmother: Gladys Motter
Charity Nighswonger is the Operational Excellence Manager of North America for Abbott Laboratories, and the mother of two daughters. Her grandmother, Gladys Motter, died at the age of 82 leaving a small white dog in Charity's possession.
Charity Nighswonger is the oldest grandchild of Gladys Motter. In her interview, Charity discusses her close relationship with her grandmother, what it was like growing up in a close knit multi-generational household, the ways her and Gladys's relationship would change as they both got older, and her children's relationship with Gladys. This interview provides a unique perspective from a woman who is reflecting on her grandmother as she exits her own child rearing years. Her commentary on understanding our grandmothers as more than just that, as women who had entire lives before we ever entered the world, pushes against the assumption of the Grandmother Hypothesis: that the core purpose of older women is to care for other people's children.
Part One
Part Two
Throughout her interview, Charity emphasizes the value she places on her relationship with her grandmother and how that relationship shifted from a physical need to an emotional one. Their annual Mother-Daughter trips would be illuminating on Gladys's history. She discusses how she feels there is similarity between herself and Gladys, and that she grew to appreciate her grandmother as a role model (two sentiments echoed in Mollie Berglund's interview). She differed from our other interviewees by saying she has no regrets about her time with her grandmother other than wanting more.
