Lionesses

My grandmother arrived with nothing but her mother's saree wrapped around hope. She worked three jobs, sending money home while raising me in this foreign city. Years later, I watched her teach my daughter Tamil songs in our cramped kitchen, preserving melodies that traveled oceans. When hard times came, our community gathered silently—no announcements, just presence. Someone paid rent. Another brought groceries. The network held us, just as it had held our ancestors through partition and displacement. My daughter now mentors young Tamil girls, passing forward the resilience she inherited. We are lionesses protecting our legacy, fierce and tender, rooted in generations of women who refused to disappear.