They looked after her. Took care of her. They did more than have her as a guest (she would have been what, six at the time?), but they did not raise her, and the proprietary feelings they seem to have around her set off some real alarm bells for me. The "It is difficult to teach our granddaughter things" (emphasis mine) twigged me. Not that grandparents shouldn't teach their grandkids anything from manners to fishing, but it sounds like they see themselves almost as co-parents, with some real possessiveness simmering under the surface.