Faces of Poverty

If you look, if you don't avert your eyes, you can see the effects of poverty and trauma on a person.One of "my" parents happened to come to the classroom this week so I could confirm she was indeed the parent of one of my students. This was so that the student could be released early to her; the parent was not carrying a picture id.On first glance, she looks older than me. Her shoulders and body frame seem stooped, she shuffles somewhat. This day, however, as we chatted, I noticed her face. Her skin does not sag as mine does now, her eyes lack wrinkles; those wrinkles are reserved for worry spots - the brow, her forehead.She carries the weight of her family's problems: her husband has been in a nasty public hospital since before Christmas. Her children are her world, all four of them - she lost a fifth child a few years ago to illness. The family's new apartment, an apartment they recently found after living in a shelter, was recently the scene of a Keystone Cops-style criminal gun chase. To hear my student tell the story the police chased a suspect right through the front door and out the back with guns drawn.Honestly, I don't know how this woman holds herself together. The daily barrage of trying to survive in such a hostile environment would do more than make me look older. She must be one of the most resilient of spirits that I have ever met!And she is a face to remember. A face of poverty in our land of plenty.