My grandmother cherishes a small portrait of her as a young woman with my mom and aunt as little children. It is a passport photo from the early 1970s that was taken for a trip to visit relatives in Ireland. For some reason the photo is in black and white even though there was color photography at the time. The three of them are not smiling because, according to my grandmother, people weren’t supposed to smile in passport photos at that time. Since this picture was taken, it has always lived near my grandmother. It was kept in the drawer by her bed for over 5 decades and since moving into our home two years ago, the picture is displayed on our dining room wall. In a bookcase in the back of our home, there’s a framed copy of it that my grandmother gave as a Christmas present to my mother when she was in her twenties. Now we all laugh about it looking like it was taken during the Great Depression due to how ridiculously gray and sad it looks. I associate it with my mother’s family’s history because I have grown up seeing it and have become familiar with it. This photo is important to me because it shows three family members of mine that have impacted my life in many different ways.

– LLM

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