It feels like it was just yesterday when I would walk down the stairs and see my grandfather blow his prayers onto the beautifully embroidered iron plate. After, he would place his hands on the plate as if he was gathering the prayers and walked towards me to bestow what he had gathered onto my head. This ritual was not part of his religion but a custom and tradition that was passed down from his father and his father’s father. My grandfather brought the iron plate, with the 99 different attributes and names of God, from Pakistan as a memory of his homeland and religion. The reason they came to the United States was due to a major eye injury that my uncle received in Pakistan, that could only be addressed in the United States. This development made my grandparents think about where they should live. They had to choose between the family & memories in Pakistan and the opportunities in America. To save my uncle's vision, they chose America. Thankfully the surgery was a success. Even though they moved to the United States, the embroidered iron plate still played a significant role in my grandparents’ everyday lives. It helped them retain all the good times they had gone through in their homeland and made them remember the family they had left behind.

– Kashef Razi

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