When my grandmother came to the U.S. in the late 1950s, all she had in her possession was a few euros in her pocket and her teardrop necklace around her neck. With no working papers and government housing to her name, she desperately wanted to make a life of her own. Everyday on her commute to work, she passed by a pawn shop that seemed to be desperately calling her name. She knew that eventually making a few dollars a day wouldn’t suffice for any sort of income. For months through struggling in her new life as an immigrant, she finally decided she had to do it. She had to pawn her necklace to get some money out of its 19 karat gold plating. While on her way to the pawn shop, she met a nice gentleman who was also from Russia but had a steady life already. He distracted her from pawing the necklace for a few weeks until the two started seeing each other, eventually had a wedding and a family. Decades later my grandmother had given me this necklace, as it was destined for the first born or only girl in the current generation. She has since passed, and I have kept the necklace and never forgot the struggle my grandmother went through as an immigrant, and her teardrop necklace is the perfect symbol for that

– Gabriella Babskiy

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