One woman who greatly impacted my life was my grandma. My grandma is the best, but obviously, I am biased. Last summer, she passed away for reasons undiagnosed but possibly due to reoccurring cancer. She was a breast cancer survivor and was first diagnosed with the condition ten years ago. While struggling and fighting cancer, she took up the work of a social worker and tried to help numerous people in her rural Indian
community. She selflessly helped people who newly moved into her village, young people getting married, and helped those with the know-how to access government welfare schemes. She rarely talked about it, so my family wasn’t fully aware of the extent to which she helped people. Only when my parents went back to perform her last rites did they hear all these wonderful stories about her. On their arrival back home, they told my sister and me about this side of my grandma. They also told me that even during her visits to the U.S., she kept in touch with people back home and continued to provide all the help she possibly could. I was in total disbelief for not knowing about this. I am in complete awe of her and her work to uplift her community members. Despite being terminally ill, she truly put people first. She left her mark and made an actual difference in her lifetime. I genuinely want to live up to her legacy. I will always have a special place and reverence for her in my heart.
Diya Kanwar,
TALScouts,
Texas