My grandma spent her career as a pharmacist. When we think of a pharmacist, we visualize someone managing a pharmacy at the back of a supermarket, dispensing prescripted medicines to patients. Among career-minded folks, it’s seen as a boring, but stable job, with a stable income. But that’s not how it was for my grandma. During her days, her job spanned from field trips into jungles to collect ingredients, working at the factory to make pills, often manually by hand, and then by the end of her career, opening a pharmacy herself.
Together with my grandfather, who was a doctor, they established an all-inclusive private medical office in their apartment when my grandma retired. During the years living with them, occasionally I would see weird stuff brought home. Once, my grandfather, being a gynecologist, brought home some placenta to sun dry in the backyard. I thought it was so off-putting that I never said a word to anyone. Then recently, I read that it is a common practice to take this as a nutritional supplement. Another time, my grandma gave me a tiger canine tooth, stained with blood. My grandma liked to give me little keepsakes here and there. She also taught me how to sew, and how to knit a scarf for my cat. It was said she treated me like a daughter she never had. My father gave me my name, which means water. It’s what my grandma would have named her daughter. I changed my name a while ago. In truth, I’ve never particularly liked any name for myself. But if I ever had a daughter, let it be known that I would name her Petra, because I think that is just the prettiest name there is.
On my summer trip to Vietnam just before college, my grandma took me to the jewelry shop to buy me a ring. It was of gold, as the Vietnamese are particular about their gold. It was wrought into two meeting heart shapes, flanked by four minuscule diamonds, each the size of a grain of sand, and studded at the center by a rose quartz. In college, I often liked to bedeck myself with jewelry. Once, I asked this very popular, very good looking guy on a date; and he said no. Then after some time, I asked him out again; and he again said no. I mean – my confidence level was through the roof. He asked me why I wore so much jewelry, and I didn’t know what to answer. A few years later, I was with then love of my life. I met him again during a field trip, and I was so embarrassed of my past cluelessness that I hid myself from him for the entire trip. My confidence level wasn’t through the roof anymore. I had stopped wearing any jewelry at all by that point. Once I could afford a car that I liked, I dangled my grandma’s ring under the rearview mirror, for good omen.
Recently I was looking at my grandma’s ring again, wondering why she picked rose quartz. As a gem stone, it’s not particularly precious or popular, as quartz is the most abundant mineral in the earth’s continental crust. Among the quartz varieties, amethyst is most highly valued. This rose quartz is dull and opaque, not brilliant like other crystals. As I inspected the rock closely, I noticed these lines winding through it, like veins of cloud. It then struck me that it looked just like a pink jade. As green jade is traditionally a more mature color, she must have found the pink to be more appealing for a 17-year-old girl.
In remembrance of my grandma, I have crafted this pink dress to adorn it with rose quartz beads embroidered in diamond motifs. Many happy memories of my childhood are with her, because of her love for me, and they are among my most treasured keepsakes of all. It is said that one is not gone as long as their memory lives, and her memory lives on within me.
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