Though the former California senator has solidified her reputation as a barrier-buster, her victories have been hard-won.
Yet, this did not stopHarris from forging an impressive career, even before entering politics.
“It is worth it, but it is not without sacrifice and not without pain.”
Yet, following their marriage and the birth of their two daughters, their connection began to fray.
“In time, things got harder.
They stopped being kind to each other.
Shyamala and Donald separated when Kamala was five.
However, the situation changed after the pair divorced.
Despite the ruling, Donald remained in his daughters' lives.
However, Kamala expressed in her memoir that the relationship between her parents remained strained.
She even worried that her mother would skip her high school graduation to avoid seeing her father.
Harris has long had to contend with this variety of discrimination.
However, the ruling was by no means an instant fix.
“We’d say, ‘Why can’t we play together?’
‘My parents we can’t play with you.'”
As Harris grew older, this separation, and her part in bridging it, manifested in other ways.
Kamala Harris faced the loss of her grandfather just as her political career took off
P.V.
Gopalan, himself an Indian civil servant, inspired his granddaughter in more ways than one.
Harris described her maternal grandfather as “one of my favorite people in my world.”
The pair fostered their close relationship in person during her trips to India and long distance.
He died in 1998, the same year Harris became assistant district attorney in San Francisco.
“She made it look easy, though it never was.”
Prior to her death, she expressed the desire to return to India.
