Tributes

You looked at me properly when nobody else did. I grew towards it. Thank you, Ma.

Twenty-eight years in the office next to yours and I never heard you complain once. Rest, my friend. The roof is still fixed.

Our children grew up on your veranda. We do not know what Tuesdays are for now.

Grandma, I finished the book. You were right about the ending.

Forty-one of us, from six countries. Every one of us can still hear you say “Girls.” Just the one word. We sat up.

She fed my driver before she fed me, and she was right to. A life lived in the correct order.

You never once made me feel like an in-law. Only like one more person at the table.

I teach now. I go quiet when the room is loud. It works about half the time. I think of you every time it does.

You told them about the scholarship after you had accepted it. You were fifteen. I have been proud of you since that afternoon.