This amazing yellow fruit - the banana has taught me an invaluable lesson.  It also holds a bittersweet memory of my dear grandmother who was a 1st generation immigrant to the United States.  My grandmother was sold as a child due to her gender but it also due to her family's inability to raise her - she had many other siblings.  I remember this story explicitly because I thought it was very funny when I first heard it as a young child.  While I was in the supermarket shopping with my grandmother (age 7) she told me that when she had just moved here to New York (late 1970s) she didn't speak, read or write the language - so when she first saw bananas at the supermarket and it was priced at $1.26 for a bunch she didn't dare to approach it.  She didn't understand what the decimal meant and thought it cost $126 whole dollars instead.  So everyday while waiting for her adoptive parents to pick her up from work she would just stand outside the grocery store watching other people and looking at this yellow fruit, thinking how much longer does she have to save to even try one.  It wasn't until many months later did she understand the currency and how to read prices.  You can see how this story was funny as a young child - I thought my grandmother was so silly.  But as I grew up, I slowly began to realize how tough it must've been for her.  She worked really hard to begin and build her own family in a foreign country.  So whenever I have a really rough day, I would pick up this yellow fruit to remind myself that nothing is impossible and to never give up. 

– AZ.

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant