Anna Ahn submitted this post about her mom (picture taken by her granddaughter, Ashley, in 2008 in Hawaii):
Imelda Ahn graduated at the top of her high school class in 1959 in South Korea. At the time, her parents were too poor to pay for college. Her father, however, was so proud of his daughter, the valedictorian, that he borrowed money at exorbitant interest rates to send her to the college of her choice. My mom started Pharmacy School with a class of over 400 students. Korea’s system differs from ours in that their schools deliberately fail students every year, or rather their schools keep only their top students every year. My mom graduated with ~120 students in 1963, while pregnant with her first child. For the next 10 years, she worked a pharmacist in a small, male-dominated country until our family emigrated to the U.S. in 1973. Imelda is now grandmother to Christine (19), Justin (14), Ashley (13), and Riley (4).