"My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had.
VOA: special.2009.09.10
"I've always been an independent person and I hate not to be able to pay my way, " she wrote.
If these efforts to rid my vision of its dark scrim pay off (I admit, they don't always), I greet the sidewalk crush with a wide expanse in my chest and a buoyant gait.