Story: I have been blessed to be raised in a family filled with amazing, funny, bomb-cooking, bold-personality, fly-outfit-wearing Black women right in the heart of the City of Brotherly Love. I can assume this photo was taken by my Pop-Pop, whose mother, my great-grandmother, was also a huge part of my life growing up, though she’s not pictured here. (I did include the Mary Jane candies she always gave me when I visited her house with its mint green living room walls.)

In this photo, we were gathered around my mom as she was getting ready to blow out her birthday candles for her 20th birthday in February of 1995. Her birthday is two weeks after mine, and I was two years old at the time. Aquarius gang!

Everything in this image, including the graphics I added, holds significance. These are just a few of the ways these five women poured into me. My Great Grandma used to always let me “do her hair,” even though I was really just playing with that silver set of combs and brushes she kept. That house phone with the spinning dial was right in the kitchen, and I remember someone was always on it.

My mom and I lived with my grandparents throughout my entire childhood, and that house was overflowing with love. They’d have friends over every other weekend to play cards and it was a moment. I couldn’t wait to host game nights of my own when I became an adult. There were always snacks, music on the record player or house speakers, laughter, and good conversation.

My Aunt Mary loved to shop! Purple was her favorite color. Don’t even try calling her on a Saturday morning; she was already at the mall getting the best deals. She and my Mom-Mom were super close, being each other’s only siblings.

Though two out of three of these amazing women have now transitioned from this physical realm, I honor them and their legacy every single day—especially by keeping their photos close and placing them on my altar. I am so grateful to have been raised by such powerful, beautiful Black women. I pray that when it’s my time to be a mother, I can give that same love and then some. I will always carry their names, their stories, and their legacy with me.

Left to Right: My Great Grandma, My Mom, Me, My Mom-Mom (My Moms Mother), My Don-Don (My Aunt, Moms Sister), and My Aunt Mary (My Mom-Moms Sister)

Submitted by: Amirah Jones

Connect: @lookinthemirah