[Magdalen] First day of school.

[ME Michaud]

My mother did settlement work, and spoke often of poor women's
efforts on behalf of their children. There was a time when, if your
kids were healthy and well-fed, well-housed and clothed, the first
line of defense in that battle was Mom. Teaching young women
domestic arts and home economics armed them to do battle with
poverty, hunger, communicable disease. Brave hard-working
women, heroic women. God bless every memory of them.

I spoke with an elderly man recently who said his mother paid
his college tuition with extra money she earned making lace
(in her spare time!), a skill she learned from the nuns in her
church.
-M