COVID-19 took so many people away from this world including my grandfather. The morning before the second Eid we got the message that my grandpa died and everyone knew what happened except my grandma because she wasn't feeling well from COVID too. We got the message in the USA. We couldn’t go back to our country or do anything because of some issues in our documents. That day I saw my dad for the first time crying. Everything was different. The peace and happiness was gone, my dad didn’t eat anything for so long. I never saw him so down, he wasn’t him. Days, months passed and I still used to see him hiding while crying remembering my grandpa. In Uzbekistan if someone dies, people take the dead person’s clothes to wear or keep it as a memory. My grandpa was a big person that so many people knew because he was our neighborhood leader when he was younger and so, so many people took away his clothes. It wasn't just clothes but Islamic long all waist covered coat called Yaktak, because he had so many of those. Since we were in America, we couldn’t have any from those coats. My grandma only  saved some of my grandfather's shirts and pants but not the Islamic coat. One day we went to my aunt's house  and saw my grandpa’s Islamic hat that he always used to wear. The hat looked so old and unclean. I asked my aunt why she hadn’t washed the hat yet. It has been almost 7 or more years since my grandpa’s last visit to America. She answered: I wanted to keep the smell of your grandfather.

– M.A

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant