Bodies of Work

nana said if she had waited to have children until she could afford them she would never have had children and the same goes for my mother and hers

nana said when the mills finally closed her mother worked whatever jobs she could find cooking cleaning piecework until she managed to go to nursing school

nana said once her mother was a fully trained nurse she worked nights at the hospital washing bodies mostly

nana said grandpa’s mother took in more foster children until the subsidies were enought to feed everyone

nana imparted the history of ancestors women whose bodies of work were the children they fought to feed