Left Alone to Raise a Family
—Alamance County, NC, aid recipient—
I’ve had three boys, and I had a daughter, she died when she was two and a half months old. After she was gone, I went ballistic. I had a nervous breakdown, I got pregnant, married, and I didn’t love the man I was married too. Didn’t love nothing. I went to work every day, came home, but I had an alcoholic and a drug addict for a husband. So I’ve raised my kids the best I could. And there was times I couldn’t get to work so I’d lose a job, couldn’t afford to put them in daycare.
Jackie was unemployed from the formal wage labor work force, but watched the children of other working mothers to help make ends meet. She is Caucasian, aged 45, and was interviewed by Elon student Jamie Albright, Oct. 9, 2012.