As a child I didn’t recognize or you can say, I was oblivious to our financial disposition. It wasn’t until I had my first brush with the juvenile system, and my father’s death, that my innocence and naivete was removed from my eyes when I started to recognize and appreciate the struggle my mother endured without showing her kids any weakness. My mother worked three jobs, after my parents’ separation; she was a teacher’s assistant, teacher, and hotel maid. I can recall helping my mom clean hotel rooms as a child (this was her solution for childcare). She worked hard to make sure her kids never went without.
Vincent
Growing up, I remember having to live in a studio apartment with my parents and 5 kids, sleeping in the living room on the couch or the floor. I used to get excited when my mom and I would go to the food bank because they would give the kids a bag of treats.
Billy
Well the bills and bounced checks began to add up again, so it was time to move. This time we moved to San Diego, California. We moved into a run-down abandoned office building. The only furniture we had was a dining room table and a couple of rickety old chairs. We all slept on the floor with roaches, crawling all over us as we slept … Most days Mom would take me and my sister Carrie to the store, lead us to the bulk weight bins and tell us to fill a bag of whatever we liked. She instructed us to finish it before we got to the check-out counter. Walking through grocery stores eating became my best new strategy to ward off a growl in my stomach.
Brandon
18 was a fresh reality check; I was on my own. I relied on daily showers in an abandoned home, and means from people’s homes who weren’t there, unknowingly the entire time it was a crime – it was all I knew! It soon became daily! Going in homes, eating, then leaving letters of an apology for their food; in turn started to become curious and taking things and pawning them for money to survive daily. I wasn’t even out in the world a year, when I was back into the system looking at the death penalty, I would never see or get the chance to be a productive citizen.
Tarynn
I grew up in a family of 6, and the only person that worked was my mom. Until the age of 7, my mom took care of all of us with only state assistance. We lived in low-income housing, although the neighborhood I lived in would have been considered working class. Once my mom went back to work, she worked as a data-entry person earning a low wage. My siblings and I would rotate clothes and any new clothes were bought on credit. As a young child we had food stamps, and my mom made sure we had enough food as she went to food banks.
Augustus
Growing up in a single parent home for me was a dream come true. I was able to do what I wanted, when I wanted. With my mother working three jobs she would only come home to rest and sometimes eat. She worked hard just to put a roof over our heads.
Ralph
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