After two years of trying to conceive and rounds and rounds of unsuccessful IVF treatments, on February 14, 2022, our “miracle” baby boy, Myles Austin Grey Smith, was born. He was conceived naturally, to the absolute surprise of our fertility doctor. My wife and I were ecstatic, but the moment he entered the world was also bittersweet because my grandmother was not here to see it. Granny was one of my favorite people on earth and our No. 1 fan. After a long battle with various ailments, she passed away in November 2019.  

At 16, my grandmother migrated to Chicago from a town called Charlestown, Mississippi. She was the youngest of 13 children and grew up on a farm in a house that had no running water or electricity. Before leaving on a train, following other family members who left in search of better work, she picked cotton for 53 cents a week. Yes, you read that right, less than a dollar a week for some pretty strenuous physical labor. 

In Chicago, she met my grandfather, and built a life for themselves, buying a house where they lived for the next 50 years. Fast forward to April 19, 2019, and my family and I threw the biggest celebration for Granny’s 68th birthday right in front of that house. Everyone was encouraged to give her flowers that we then planted as a family. But I chose a different gift. I gave my grandmother $1,360, handing the money to her in for the form of 68 $20 bills—one for every year of her life. 

As I counted the bills and placed them in her hand, I took a photo that perfectly captures the moment. A gift of $1,360 may not seem like a lot, but for my grandmother, it was a symbol of just how far her grandson had come from those cotton-picking days of 53 cents a week. 

Granny, I love you, and Myles will take it even further than me! —Marcus Smith