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169 Making Meaning Lea Caragata and Judit Alcalde This following section of the book is a departure in style and form from Part I. We felt it important to let the stories of Part I speak for themselves and to not engage in any direct analysis of the very personal narratives of our co-authors, the women who have chosen to tell their stories. Yet their motive, and ours as the volume’s editors, is to bring to light some of the broader structural issues, to tell “the whole story” that explains so much of the life experiences of so many single mothers. This whole story requires an adding up of the personal life experiences related here to make apparent their relation to contemporary values and ideologies as well as the policy frameworks and initiatives that have been shaped by them. In order to engage in such analysis, we have summarized the stories with the intention of working analytically with these summaries rather than directly with the lone-mother narratives. We realize that this is an uncomfortable compromise , and we do so only because we think it serves a larger end congruent with lone-mothers’ interests. The stories themselves must be told, but as well there should be no ambiguity about their meaning and their being grounded in the structures and systems of western neo-liberal ideology. Summaries of the stories follow and from these we draw and then discuss the political, economic, and social issues that underlie them. Story Summaries Sara A single mother for 35 years, Sara is the fourth of 16 children from a working-class, rural Newfoundland family. From the age of 11, Sara was made to take on domestic duties, such as cooking and cleaning, because her mother was often unable, due to severe obesity, and unwilling to do the 170 Making Meaning work herself. By age 12, Sara was taken out of school and forced to carry out all the household chores as well as work outside the home, along with her siblings, to help support the large family. Her father was an alcoholic and authoritarian who was often absent from the home, and he and Sara’s mother were both physically and verbally abusive to all of their children. In one particularly harrowing incident, Sara’s father shot at her as she fled the house after a violent altercation with him. Sara’s father hunted and used bribes in the form of prime cuts of meat and wild game he had shot to convince local authority figures, like judges, to turn a blind eye to his abuse. As a result, there were few if any community supports or resources available to Sara. Although he also abused his wife, Sara’s mother refused to leave her husband because she claimed they were in love. Sara soon learned that love and physical violence are compatible and even interchangeable. In her late teens, Sara married her late husband, a university-educated school teacher and principal who died in a car accident five years after they married. A widow at age 23, Sara soon moved to Toronto, met a man, and had a daughter with him. When he became verbally abusive and threatening, Sara left him and, because she had difficulty supporting herself, applied for social assistance. Her experience negotiating the system was frustrating because she found many of the case workers to be condescending and unhelpful. Sara finally found her own voice while working in a long-term position in a flower shop. Participation in various women’s groups also helped her to find the confidence to begin speaking up for herself. She eventually started writing children’s poetry, which she continues to do. Sara enjoys a close relationship with her daughter and grandchildren. Martha The youngest child and only girl in a family of four children, Martha had a happy childhood in north Toronto with a stay-at-home mother and a hard-working father who took their children to church on Sundays, took annual summer vacations in northern Ontario, and celebrated the holidays with family and friends. Despite the carefree appearance of her early years, Martha was sexually abused as a child and still suffers from the negative psychological and physical effects of that violation, including a lack of selfconfidence and an eating disorder. Martha became pregnant with her first child before she graduated from high school, at age 17. Pressured by her mother and another family friend, [3.17.184.90] Project MUSE...

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