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[quote=Anonymous]The story the PP above shared about "Nativity" reminded me of one of my friends (who I am still close with today, 25 years later).

This was also in the Midwest, in the 90s (I'm 35). My friend was the oldest of 6 children and the only girl. Her father was a Lutheran minister. Her mother had some kind of disability that prevented her from working or even really doing much around the house, so when I met my friend Sarah, at age 10, she was already the caregiver for the other children.

They lived across the street from our school, in a 3 bedroom house. They didn't have a car. The closest grocery store was about a mile and a half away, up a pretty steep hill. They were always dirty. Their clothing was clearly washed by hand, not always properly dried. The younger kids' clothing was well worn due to being handed down so many times. Sarah didn't have new clothes, ever. Her father got some kind of stipend from the church, but his main compensation was the house.

When we were in 4th grade, after I'd know her for maybe 6 months, the house caught on fire and burned to the ground. The family was safe, but they lost everything. The church was not able to immediately finance the building of a new home and wasn't even able to clear away the rubble. The family stayed in a motel for a couple of days, and then they stayed in the community center at the church for a while until the church could sort out a place for them to live, which ended up being someone's uncle's trailer on the far side of town.

A couple years later, my family moved, and Sarah's family also moved to another small Midwest town. She got pregnant when she was 14 (I blame her religious parents' refusal to provide any sex ed whatsoever and that sort of thing not being taught in our schools). She has 4 children and has been married three times (twice divorced). She is brilliant, though, and really insightful and thoughtful about poverty. [/quote]

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