Generations of Strength

When my mom first showed me this photograph, I had wondered who the different looking women were. I wondered why they looked so worn out, yet still managed to smile just a bit. This picture was taken at my dad’s home village of Kothi Vatersa, India. At a first glance it looks like just a picture captured at a regular reunion, but this picture was taken after my grandfather, who is not present in the picture, survived his first heart attack. My grandmother, the woman seated in the middle of the swing wearing purple, was considered a very lucky woman not to have been widowed, as many people in India believe that a woman without a husband, is a woman unprotected and vulnerable. But many of those same people forget that a woman is just as capable to protect herself and her loved ones as a man is.

My grandmother was a healthy, vivacious woman when she took a tumble out in the wheat fields one morning. During that fall something went wrong, causing one of her kidneys to fail at a later date. Two years ago my grandfather passed, leaving my grandmother all the property to take care of. She took up the responsibility whole heartedly while she was still dealing with diabetes, cholesterol issues, back problems and the single kidney I mentioned before. Both of my uncles and my dad have repeatedly offered to take her in, but every single time she declines saying that she needs to take care of the property because no one else is left but her. My grandmother is a strong woman who has constantly proven that she can take care of herself.

Sitting next to my grandma is a woman dressed in all white. This is a sign that she is a widow. That woman is my great grandmother, Aisha. In the eyes of society, she was viewed as unlucky due to the fact that her husband passed away early on in their marriage and that she was left alone in this world to fend for herself. Before he passed she had five children with him. She was burdened with the task of taking care of her late husband’s...