Seated side-by-side at their kitchen table in San Jose, California, 94 year old Crescenciana Tan and her grandson, Kenneth Tan, got to work. Crescenciana made watercolor paintings and Kenneth drew her memories on top of them. When Crescenciana passed, she left behind all of her paintings, and Kenneth decided he would finish everything she started. He promised.

In Crescenciana, Kenneth weaves together their artwork, conversations, and memoirs to tell his grandmother’s life story. With heart and humor, he recounts her childhood antics in the Philippines, her fall on black ice outside a church in Canada, and her show- stopping civics test performance that earned her citizenship in the United States. At the same time, he revisits her memories as a survivor of World War II and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, and he reflects on his grief since her passing.