When my grandfather passed earlier this year, he left behind a lifetime of documents and objects he thought mattered. The most surprising were photo albums he had quietly filled over the years. When my grandmother saw one of herself as a young girl with her mother in rural China, she sighed and scolded him for keeping such a thing. She and my grandfather were arranged to be married, yet they still cared deeply about the future they hoped for. When he left for America to earn enough to bring the family over, she moved to Hong Kong to raise my father and aunt. I am a living history of women who sacrificed so much to bring me here. The homes we reside in may change, but the stories remain. I am not only from Lynn, I am from Peabody, Salem, Malden, Dorchester, Hong Kong, Southern China. I am a collection of stories that shaped not just me but my history. I am a Matryoshka doll of people who loved me.