As a child growing up in Jamaica, I often heard it said, by my parents and family friends: memba whe yu cum fram. To this day, I continue to retain the deep social awareness and strong sense of identity which that grassroots Jamaican philosophy fed in me.  As a father, I naturally sought to develop the same sensibility in my two daughters.  Born and bred in America, Kamala was the first in line to have it planted.  Maya came two years later and had the advantage of an older sibling as mentor.  It is for them to say truthfully now, not me, what if anything of value they carried from that early experience into adulthood.  My one big regret is that they did not come to know very well the two most influential women in my life: Miss Chrishy and Miss Iris (as everybody called them).  This is, in many ways, a story about these women and the heritage they gave us.