I’m spending this Jubilee weekend celebrating my Queen, Shanti Khanchandani 👑 , who we said goodbye to this week with family, song and prayer. My grandparents grew up in India surrounded by mango trees 🥭 and ended up in Luton, close to farmland and chalk downs, and we lived round the corner from their house 🏠. Grandma was engaged to Grandad at the age of 12 💍. Newly married, she found herself a refugee of partition in Pakistan 🇵🇰 and fled to Bombay. When Grandad moved to England 🇬🇧 in search of a better life for his family, she had to stay behind for six years during which they couldn’t see each other once ☎️. Thanks to the sacrifices she and Grandad made, our family will never know poverty in the way they once did. I was fortunate to stay close to Grandma in her old age so it was strange to be abroad ✈️ when she passed away, but a testament to the diaspora that she and Grandad created that I was in India 🇮🇳 for work. Since I couldn’t be at home I went to Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi 🕌 , the red sandstone monument that inspired the Taj Mahal - lesser known but in my view equally magnificent. Five minutes after my plane took off to fly home a devastating storm ⛈ struck the city and I can’t help but wonder if she saved us by a whisker. The last time I saw her was before I went away. Her memory had faded and I wasn’t sure if she recognised me 😞. When I told her that I felt sad, she held me and said, “Don’t put your happiness in anyone else’s hands. Look after yourself and find happiness in yourself.” Although her dementia was advanced, she said those words with so much conviction ❤️‍🔥. We will miss her but she will live on in the family she was so devoted to and the incredible values she instilled in us: mirth, love and charity 👼🏼 I hope you have a peaceful long weekend, whichever Queen you are celebrating 🙏🙏🙏 #jubilee #queen #amma #charity #mirth #love #joy #grandma #RIP #hariom #humayunstomb #newdelhi #architecture #design #india #newdelhi #designblog