As I continue to sort family photos, I find surprises tucked away in the oddest corners…like this one.

I love this snapshot of my mother and my grandmother on the beach, probably on the Chilean coast, where we are originally from. My mother and my grandmother were fashionistas, my mother in the New York cosmopolitan sense where she lived most of her life, and my grandmother as a designer who sewed her own clothes. I still have the nightgown she handstitched for her honeymoon and a lovely felt hat, which she crafted during the roaring 20s.

Yet these two women were diametrically different, as mothers and daughters often are. My mother, who became a widow at 21 with two children, had the greatest survival skills I have ever witnessed. She kept pushing herself, and opened a very successful restaurant. Thanks to my mother, we lived in Europe most of our childhood. My brother and I are also adept at survival, having been dealt our share of “life comes at you fast” moments as children.

I wish I could print this photograph of my mother Paulina with my abuelita Edith on fabric to incorporate into my memory quilt. ~shared by @peregrineblues