My sister was amazing. She was really amazing woman. She had so much responsibility on herself because she was the oldest out of the eight children, and all of them were younger than her. And you can understand as her being seventeen, having her three children, because when my parents passed away, my sister was only seventeen. And rest of us. We become her responsibility and understand that coming to the United States, lack of education, lack of the language, being responsible of eight children without a parent. I feel like my sister tried her best. There is always challenging misunderstanding all that. Sometimes as me being a teenager, like you're not my parents, you're my sister. You can't be boss on me all that. Basically, I grew up by myself. I have to figure out everything by myself.
--Deka Ali / mother & cultural navigator from East Grand Forks Minnesota
