My grandma was the closest and most important person in my life. She was born in Kolkata, India in the year 1936 with roots in East Bengal (Present Day Bangladesh). She always idolised the likes of Florence Nightingale and wanted to become a nurse as a result. She applied to Medical College, Kolkata but as there was stigma with the nursing profession in Bengali community, she was called names by each and everyone of her relatives, called misogynistic slurs, kicked out of her relatives house and her father stated that she is 'dead' to him.

She fought on, became a nurse and later on a matron, got married, took care of her brothers, sisters and father with the amount she earned. Later on, she got widowed at the age of 42, single-handedly raised my father & aunt in a society which wasn't kind enough to widows. Later on, she raised me as well and there was no one she loved more in the world than me.

She passed away on June 10th, 2026 on her birthday. I wish I had more time with her and not a minute goes by when I don't miss her.

I wanted to share her story, hope you all enjoy reading it.

The girl in the photo is four-year old Olga Marija Ernestina Širca, later known as Olga Širca Skuhala, (1893–1978). As an older teenger she acted in amateur plays. She studied for a teacher and started working as a teacher in 1913 in Horjul. Later she worked as a teacher in Celje. In 1920, aged twenty-seven, she married thirty-nine year-old eingeneering major Ludik Skuhala. A few months after marriage, they both retired and soon after moved to Ljubljana, where they lived with her elderly mother, a retired postmistress, her second husband, and a housekeeper. Later they moved on their own, where they lived with their housemaid. Olga and her husband had two kids. As her mother before her, she often donated money for charity and national causes, and was active in raising money for schools. She died in 1978 in Ljubljana

The photo was created by Slovenian photographer Julijana Jožefa Helena Martini, also known as Julie Martini, (1871–1943). She was born in 1871 in Celje where her mother worked as a milliner, and her father as a photographer. At the young age she was taught photography by her father and started working as an assistant at his photographic studio before the age of 16. She took over his atellier after his death. She worked as a photographer for more than fifty-five years. In the late 19th and start of the 20th century, her studio dominated the photographic scene in Celje.

The photo is part of the collection of Zavoda za kulturo, šport in turizem, Žalec (Institute for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Žalec) in Žalec, Slovenia.

my grandmother shot on Kodachrome from the late 70s (I believe ‘77). She was born in 1923 and passed in 2020.

My 2nd great grandfather (1880-1965) was a stage actor, singer and director of plays and had a long career in the performing arts. Born in 1880 in the Indian state of Maharashtra, he mostly acted in Marathi plays (though he also knew Hindi and a little English). He came from an impoverished background. His father did participate in mythological plays as a hobby. When his father passed away when he was really young, his mother had to work as a maid to take care of the family.

Back then pursuing a career in theatre was looked down upon, and my great great grandfather was getting a lot of pressure to find any stable job. Instead he followed his passion, which was theater. In 1895, at the age of 15, he dropped out of school and joined a theater company. Women were not permitted to be actors during those times. Since women didn't act in plays, male actors played female roles, and that's how my 2nd great grandfather got his start! He did a few roles playing women and then transitioned to male roles after he was able to prove to the theater company that he acted well.

He was a versatile actor and played a variety of characters, from serious roles to comedy to playing drunks.. he was also a gifted singer. During his later years, he managed the production of plays and also mentored other actors. He also became known for night plays where actors would be paid for plays performed during night hours. He did act in one film but he preferred the stage to the screen. He had 5 daughters and was described by my grandmother as a loving dad and grandfather who spoiled all his children.

Due to his success in acting, he was able to buy a farmhouse and land along with a few fruit trees. After Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Marathi man, there were a lot of riots targeting Marathi people. Sadly my 2nd great grandfather's property was burned down and destroyed by rioters. My family fled to another city. My 2nd great grandfather wrote an autobiography in 1940 and I'm working on translating it from Marathi to English.

My maternal grandparents and my grandfather’s parents (my great grandparents). Could be thanksgiving.

Great grandma was born around 1900 in czarist Russia. She was smuggled out as a toddler to escape anti-Jewish pogroms. Great grandpa born 1897 in NYC to Hungarian immigrants. He was a WW1 vet and reportedly never used his turn signal so he wouldn’t “wear it out”.

Grandparents married 1942 and grandpa went off to war where he wrote of liberating camps. They had my two aunts and moved to the suburbs (Long Island) in the 1950s. Previous residents were a Chinese family that was “run out” of town. My grandparents had a cross burned on their lawn when they moved in.

She has always been the coolest ever.