From my early childhood my family has had various traditions passed down from generation to generation since my great great grandparents immigrated from Italy. Traditions both large and small, such as having figures of italian saints in our kitchen drawers, singing italian songs all together at big family gatherings, doing the cross every time we pass a church in the car, and having small charms of the italian horn around our house. One tradition that I’ve kept is wearing the same jewelry for years on end. This may seem like a small habit, but my great great grandmother had a necklace with an angel wing that she wore as she traveled on a boat from Italy to New York, leaving everything she knew behind to start a new life. This necklace was given from my great great grandmother to my great grandmother, who I was very close with until she passed. She always loved the prospect of keeping something that can simultaneously represent her family across seas and their catholic religion. When she passed my sophomore year, I didn’t think to look for that necklace in her jewelry box, but this summer I was shopping with my mom not looking for anything in particular and I saw this necklace with a small angel wing on it. Instantly all of the memories came flooding back of my great grandmother with this necklace and the stories she told me of her mother, and I knew I had to buy it, not as a representation of my religion, but of my family and the foundation of how we got to be who we are today. 

– Mia Graham-Morton

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more