In Memory of My Grandma, 2022
This is the ever first photo of my grandma, taken at the age of 16 for matchmaker showing to her future husband. 12 years ago she was sold to a family in another village as the child bride for their son. But then her stubbornness wasn't welcomed by them, despite she worked hard day and night. So they married her to a blue collar that she has never met before and never received love from after. A year later she gave birth to her first child, who was a girl but soon died of a severe fever. She cried. Few months later she had another girl, and then another, and finally a boy. Not long after, her husband moved to live with another woman, younger, literate, plump, while she was emaciated by raising three children all by herself. Then she was introduced to a glass worker 20 years older than her, they had a fairly fulfilled life before the glass factory went bankrupt and they lost everything to pay for the debt, as right before he had been deceived by the boss to be the legal person. After that she bought a vendor selling street food to sustain the entire family, while he got cancer and couldn't work anymore. They didn't have money for treatment, so he died soon. Did she cry this time?
I've never thought of taking a photo of her until she died, and this would be the most unforgivable thing I've done.
In fact, this image is AI-generated and has nothing to do with my grandma. I guess the only thing they share is being unprotected, innocent nonexistence in a man-made world.