“The picture attached to the story belongs to a time before World War II (around 1934- 1935): Before my grandmother experienced war as an adult, before losing her firstborn boy to typhus and malaria when he was just only 13 years old. She was 102 years old when she died.She was my role model (and still is), motivation, and storyteller. She continues to give me hope, make me smile, and remind me not to have regrets and follow my heart’s desires.

One day, we spoke of the food scarcity during the war, how people would repair their clothes rather than get new ones, and how families would create simple recipes to make ends meet. That day, she told me that she operated on a family chicken. You can imagine my shock. The family chicken (named Fancy) had stopped laying eggs and could not bob her head and would make weird sounds. Fancy could not eat anything and was losing weight.

When my grandmother examined Fancy, she realized something stuck in her throat. She decided to operate on Fancy because getting daily eggs were essential for her family. She cut Fancy’s throat with a sharp knife, removed the little twig, and sewed it with a sterilized needle. Miraculously, Fancy survived.”