Posted on Mother’s Day, 2020.
My sister Alissa and I are grateful to our inspiring Mum, who at age 76, radiates positivity, intellect, independence, energy and a fierce sense of discipline. She continues to practice daily sirshasana with a “do what has to be done” attitude, what more can we say?
This year has also got us both thinking about our late grandmothers, pictured here from sometime in the late 1930s.
In their youth, each survived tumultuous, difficult years.
One, a mother by age 22 and a soldier’s widow by the peak of the Second World War, had to rebuild her life single-handedly in a destroyed Germany. The other, coming of age in pre-independent India, faced her own challenges; despite the responsibilities of an early marriage and motherhood, she followed her dream of higher education, a rare achievement for women of her generation.
Both our grandmothers, in their own unique ways, adapted and created, worked and thrived; in time, they became who they were meant to be. And despite the differences of culture, language and history, they bonded as dear friends in their later years, meeting with affection in Munich, Bombay, Delhi, wherever possible.
I suppose they recognized in one another the spirit of determination, sacrifice, courage, humanity and self-sufficiency. I think these qualities are what all women innately possess.
In tribute to Ms. Chandra Kapadia Sheth (1915 – 1976) and Mrs. Irmengard Buchner Morschel Kilger (1921 – 2015).
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