“Ah, baby yi ma lẹ wa o,” Mama Igbobi said in Yorùbá – “Ah, this girl is gorgeous!”

We were watching a movie when there was a sudden flash of mild nudity. I was expecting her to quickly urge me to cover my eyes or fast forward. Instead, she simply commented on how beautiful the person was.

That was Mama Igbobi in a nutshell. My mother’s mother. The fiercest and most independent woman I knew growing up. Beautiful inside and out, self confident, self assured, and someone who lived by her own rules. My mom told me she’d descended from comfort, and I could feel her lineage in the way she carried herself; a woman who knew her worth and won’t settle for anything less.