Si stava meglio quando si stava peggio ? ("Those were the days")

Every day you read a letter in a newspaper or hear someone say what a mess we're in, the recession, the brain drain, the numbers of young people that are unemployed. Last Sunday in church the priest used the expression "si stava meglio quando si stava peggio". Whenever I hear these comments I think of my dear sweet Nana, my Mum's Mum! The Elizabeth that my Mother, my Daughter and I have included as our second name in the hope that her gentle strength will live on in us. She had three children before the First World war and three after. She had no inside bathroom, no washing machine, no disposable nappies, no central heating. She saw her husband off to fight in the trenches and return a broken man. She saw her youngest son fly off in the Second world war, never to return. Does that sound  better???
My father was one of the staunchest feminists I ever knew. He admired his own mother so much. She had five children and they were always happy and healthy. It was a hard life though with no modern conveniences and two World Wars reaching in to destroy a generation .
When he had his factory, Grandpa would say he would go to his workers' homes and see a huge difference in the quality of life there. The same salary coming home but different standards of warmth and comfort. He thought this depended entirely on the woman of the house xxx