My grandmother immigrated to Minneapolis from India in 1969, a year after my grandfather came to Minnesota. They were married, and received their graduate degrees, in Kolkata, where it is routinely 110 degrees and 95% humidity, and moved to a place where the roads frequently freeze over and they had to trudge through feet of snow to get to work. The way my grandfather used to tell the story, he came to the US with a job at the University of Minnesota and $8 in his pocket. But he and my grandmother brought a huge amount of their wealth with them in the form of my grandmother's jewelry, much of which was solid gold (she had come from a moderately wealthy family in eastern India). They were gold-rich but cash-poor. She sold a lot of her jewelry when they came to the US so they could afford to have basic necessities like food and pay their utility bills. But she saved her favorite pieces, which she hoped I could wear at my wedding. She died when I was 16, long before I was able to get married. But I wear her jewelry whenever I can to thank her for making my life possible through her sacrifices. Now I wear her ring around New York, a place she never got to visit. 

– Julia Green

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