Who is Aunt Baba from Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter and what is their importance? Falling_Leaves_(memoir) English & Literature Aunt Baba | Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter

Aunt Baba was Joseph's sister and Adeline's beloved aunt and caregiver. Baba cares for Adeline after her mother's death and gives up both a career and the possibility of marriage to live in Joseph's house to care for his motherless children. After Joseph remarries, however, things change and she feels as if she's imprisoned in his home. Baba shares a close bond with Adeline, especially after her brother's marriage to Jeanne. She praises Adeline's grades and encourages her to excel. Baba later lives in Shanghai, and when Adeline later returns to China years after moving to America, she and Baba reconnect. When Baba is dying at age eighty-nine, she asks for Adeline, who returns to spend the final days with her aunt.