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Grace Dunphy was the mother of Phil Dunphy and the wife of Frank Dunphy, as well the mother-in-law of Claire Dunphy, the paternal grandmother of Haley, Alex, and Luke Dunphy, and great-grandmother of Poppy and George Marshall. She never appeared on the show, neither in person, nor in flashbacks or photos but has been mentioned in several episodes.

Overview[]

In "Fizbo", Phil revealed that he is afraid of clowns. He was not sure where the fear came from, but according to Grace, it was because when Phil was a kid, he found a dead clown in the woods.

In "Undeck the Halls", the Dunphy family video chatted with Frank and Phil asked him where was Grace. Frank said that she was in the bathtub. Later, when Frank saw the Dunphys arguing, he told her wife to come to view it.

In "Travels with Scout", Frank returned from Cocoa Beach to give the Dunphy family Scout, a dog he couldn't raise as Grace was allergic to dogs. Claire saw her father-in-law crying and thought that had something to do with Grace. But Frank said that he was apparently sad because he was giving up Scout, and the family decided to let Frank keep the dog.

In "Schooled", Phil said that Grace and Frank had bought him a bicycle helmet.

In "The Wow Factor", Frank said that Grace was a little tired of hearing how pretty Claire was.

Grace died in "Goodnight Gracie", and the whole family flew to Florida for the funeral. Phil and Claire read the letter Grace wrote about the last thing she would want Phil to do for her. That last thing was to set up Frank with a woman called Annie Fitzsimmons, so he would not be alone. Phil did not like the idea at all, but Claire said that he had to honor his mother's wish, especially since it was her last one. When they went to Annie's house, they saw a man and mistook him for her boyfriend. But when they realized that he was actually her brother, Phil returned to Annie's house and finally explained her his mother's last wish because it was what Grace wanted. Phil then remembered all that Grace did for him and realized that she was a great woman. He then broke down crying and Annie comforted him.

In "The Help", it was revealed that after Grace passed away, Frank finally dated Annie and she broke up with him. Then he seemed kind of down, so Phil invited him to stay at the house of the Dunphys. However, Frank later admitted that was him who broke up with Annie, because he was still saddened by the loss of his wife.

In "Australia", the entire family traveled to Australia where Phil was conceived and he wanted to connect to his late mother by visiting the country. But he thought that Australia didn't like him when he got stung by jellyfish, bitten by mosquitoes, and punched in the face by a kangaroo. He was then approached by an Australian man stating that "after you get hurt in Australia by the wildlife, you become one of them". Phil was later accepting of this, but turned around to see that the Australian man was gone.

Trivia[]

  • Grace had a grandfather who was Australian.
  • According to Alex, Grace's favorite holiday was the Fourth of July.
  • She is allergic to dogs.
  • Her granddaughter Alex took after her a lot.

Appearances[]

Gallery[]

  1. Phil mentioned in an episode that he had a grandfather who died when he was still a child.
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