My grandmother was a poor white woman from around Appalachia and in addition to doing household stuff, raising a family and cooking, she worked in a factory, winding electrical wires (e.g. around a motor). Fucked up her hands for the rest of her life but that lady never once complained about a damn thing in her life.
Near the end of her life she fell and cracked some of the vertebrae in her back. She wasn't paralyzed or anything, but it had to hurt terribly. At the doctor's office they asked her pain on a scale of 1-10. She said no pain. She tried to stand up, hissed in pain, but kept going and tried to leave. The doctor who was probably in his 20s, was like "wtf is happening."
Her life, like many of that era, was a tragedy. She stopped school after 7th grade so she could stay home and raise her siblings after her mother died. Dad was alcoholic and abusive. Dirt poor, family almost starved one winter, surviving only on a 100 lb bag of dried beans they had bartered for. She said she could never eat beans again after that. She lost one kid during childbirth and another one after a nurse at the hospital dropped her baby (?!). In her 70s raised her grandkids who had deadbeat parents.
What is sad is that we don’t have people like your grandmother around anymore. My grandparents had similar stories and I’m glad I spent summers with them growing up
My grandmother was a poor white woman from around Appalachia and in addition to doing household stuff, raising a family and cooking, she worked in a factory, winding electrical wires (e.g. around a motor). Fucked up her hands for the rest of her life but that lady never once complained about a damn thing in her life.
Near the end of her life she fell and cracked some of the vertebrae in her back. She wasn't paralyzed or anything, but it had to hurt terribly. At the doctor's office they asked her pain on a scale of 1-10. She said no pain. She tried to stand up, hissed in pain, but kept going and tried to leave. The doctor who was probably in his 20s, was like "wtf is happening."
Her life, like many of that era, was a tragedy. She stopped school after 7th grade so she could stay home and raise her siblings after her mother died. Dad was alcoholic and abusive. Dirt poor, family almost starved one winter, surviving only on a 100 lb bag of dried beans they had bartered for. She said she could never eat beans again after that. She lost one kid during childbirth and another one after a nurse at the hospital dropped her baby (?!). In her 70s raised her grandkids who had deadbeat parents.
She was the strongest person I've ever met.
What is sad is that we don’t have people like your grandmother around anymore. My grandparents had similar stories and I’m glad I spent summers with them growing up