母亲的教导:生活艰辛也不能丢下亲情和尊严
Mary's father, William Luis, was just 29 when he died; Mary was 5."He worked for an electrical company, and he was standing in water — and someone dropped a wire and electrocuted him," she tells Charles. When William died, Mary's mother was pregnant with her youngest sister."And so my mother had to go out to work, wash clothes and clean house to try and feed four children," she says.As for clothes, the children wore whatever Mary's mother, Eva Hornyak, managed to bring home from the households where she worked. "I don't ever remember going to the store to get a pair of shoes, 'cause Mama couldn't afford it," says Mary, now 94.Still, her mother, who had grown up in Czechoslovakia, taught Mary and her siblings to take pride in themselves."I'm not saying that we looked dowdy," Mary says. "She said, 'You don't have to be dirty to be poor.' I always remember that." |