My family is not the type to put much value into a monetary object, which why there is not one particular item that is valuable to the entire family. But on my mother’s side we do have something that can be seen as the family emblem. My grandmother’s jewelry. According to my mother, my grandmother gave her and her three sisters her very own jewelry. Now this jewelry wasn’t any typical, basic kind, but was custom made by her father when she was ten years old for the purpose of giving it to her on her wedding day. Sadly, he passed away a few years later, but the bracelet and necklace he’d made for her was, as promised, given to her the day she married my grandfather. The necklace and bracelets were made of pure gold and fashioned in a unique style that captured the era of the 40s, prior to the split of Pakistan and India.  The idea behind it was to give each piece to her daughters and have it passed through the female line of the family. Only one of my aunts possesses my great grandmother’s jewelry and she plans to give it to her daughter, but first she let one of her sisters wear it for her recent wedding. I being my mother’s daughter, the jewels would fall to me. 

– Samah Islam

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