My mom was pregnant at 16 and divorced by 20—her first divorce, anyway. We lived in a small town in Washington State and were very impoverished. All we had were the bare necessities, nothing that was worth anything. But it was like that for my whole family going all the way back. My grandfather was the youngest of 13 kids, all of them loggers. You just think about how hard it was to stay alive back then; everyone died at 60.
I wear my great-grandmother’s locket. The inscription reads, “To Victoria, from Thomas, December 25, 1919,” which is the year their daughter—my grandmother—was born. It’s amazing to think that a hundred years later, I’m in New York City with a penthouse office overlooking Park Avenue. For them to imagine they’d have a great-granddaughter doing something like this…
The locket connects me to my great-grandmother and to my past, but it also reminds me how much change is possible.
~ Jennifer Justice, president of corporate development, Superfly, New York, NY
