A red brick bungalow house,

sounds of pots and pans and laughter,

smells of soy and stir fry

from the wok that they’ve used for years.

Justine Tan stands in her kitchen. She’s created a sanctuary here, surrounded by the people she loves. On paper, her everyday is nothing special.

She plays pickleball every Tuesday and Saturday, goes into the office every other day, and walks every evening. She binges TV shows of all genres, spends time with her boyfriend, and acts as a chauffeur for her kids. And then there’s her almost daily ritual- cooking.

Cooking is her happy place. From five spice to Szechuan to oyster sauce, she knows her way around the kitchen. It reminds her of her childhood.

She came from the crowded streets of KL, Malaysia.

She’s not malay—her dad Chinese and her mom Indian, but she fit right in.

When it came to cooking, her family taught her everything she knows.

Her house wasn’t always perfect; her father was never around. When he was, there was fighting and yelling and eventually hitting. She vowed never to speak to him again, after she left.

She went to America with big dreams. She got a college education, a master’s in English, and lived in Chicago for 12 years. But nothing would compare to her pride and joy—her kids.

Chicago-born and Austin-raised, there’s nothing but love for their mother. Sure, there’s been rough patches (parenting a teen is never easy), but at the end of the day without fail, they sit down and have a comforting home-cooked meal.

She grew up surrounded by the sounds of pots and pans and laughter.

the smell of stir fry and soy,

the feeling of family.

She can’t go back to that time,

but she can create new memories,

bringing that joy and family to her own home.

Editor’s note: Photojournalism students wrote 300-word stories that emulated the feature profiles written by Brady Dennis for the St. Petersburg Times in the mid-2000s. 2022-2024 Shield co-editor in chief Alice Scott prepared a master class on Dennis’ stories for the newspaper staff, and adviser Dave Winter was so impressed with the lesson that he changed his feature profile assignment based on what Scott taught the staff about Dennis’ stories. As a result, we have a growing collection of wonderful short profiles—including Tegan Hahn’s touching profile of her mom, Justine Tan, and her love of cooking—that are well-crafted, powerful and straight from the heart.