Dr. Kushalata Jayakar Ahmed was universally known as a loving friend, wife, mother, grandmother, and aunt. Born in pre-Partition Bombay, from her earliest days she welcomed relationships with people regardless of religion or color or any other descriptor. She graduated medical school in India, trained as a pediatrician and later as a psychiatrist following her 1967 immigration to New York. She married Dr. Fakhiuddin Ahmed in 1969, and they had one daughter, Yasmeen, two years later. Kushal spent decades protecting and advocating for those who needed help; she founded and directed the Brooklyn Family Center for victims of child abuse at Kings County Hospital for 25+ years, and later went on to be a founding member of the Domestic Harmony Foundation, a support network for abused women and children on Long Island. She was sharp as a tack, curious and persistent, loving and generous, and boy, could she cook. After suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for almost 30 years, she passed peacefully in her home. The world was a better place with her in it, and we were all better for knowing her.