About Grandma M's Toe Jam
Our Story
My name is Christina, I am relatively speaking the founder of Grandma M’s Homemade Lotion. Which is now called Grandma M’s Toe Jam, (I will get to that part momentarily). I started the business of Grandma M’s Homemade Lotion in 1999, but by no means was that the beginning of this great product.
My mom Linda Merrill started making this lotion out of necessity. My dad worked in construction and did a lot of concrete work. Anyone who has worked with concrete knows what terrible damage it does to your skin. Making your hands dry, and cracked so bad they bleed. This is why our homemade lotion came into existence. Homemade lotion had been around for many years. Mom had several recipes handed down to her and after much trial and error mom found the right combination. It worked like a miracle on dad’s suffering hands. Our lotion has been in our family for over a half a century now.
When my son was two weeks old he was in the hospital with pneumonia. His cheeks had gotten very irritated from the tape that held the oxygen line in place. When they took the tape off I put our homemade lotion on his cheeks. By morning his cheeks were healed. Nurses were surprised how quickly the irritation disappeared and were eager to try some of our lotion. Amazed again with it’s effects, the nurses were continually encouraging me to sell it.
And so I did. I ran a successful business for 10 years with many happy customers. However, I was very young and naive. The lotion business had grown to be much more than I and my mom could handle and I went on a path that would be most supportive to my needs and the needs of my family at that time. Even though I quit doing the lotion business, I never quit making the lotion. My mom’s lotion was a much needed product within my family. Not just my family though. The phone calls never stopped coming in from customers, hopeful to purchase my mom’s lotion again.
In 2013 my dad unexpectedly passed away. A couple years after his passing my dad came to me in a dream, telling me that it was time to start the lotion business again. Shortly after that I was inspired to call it Grandma M’s Toe Jam. From the time I was a little girl up to the present time when my dad passed I can recall memories of my dad rubbing lotion on my mom’s feet and every time he did he would always surprise her at some point and tickle her toes yelling out toe jam. It was perfectly clear to me that the lotion should be called Grandma M’s Toe Jam, because there was no better representation of my parents and the love that was between them, and that is what this product will forever represent.
2019 brought my family another surprise with the passing of my mother. My mom was my partner in managing the business the first go around. The loss of mom left me feeling very lost and confused as how to proceed forward. Lucky for me my mom just didn’t create a wonderful lotion, my mom also raised a loving and supportive family. My two sisters, my daughter and my amazing nieces all stepped up to the plate to help bring you our family lotion. The old sayings, “There is nothing like homemade”, and “Grandma always knows best”, still hold true.
My family and I proudly present,
Grandma M’s Toe Jam
Always made with 100% Love!