|
Caroline McGrady has had no easy path in life. Born to parents who could only be politely described as questionable at best, her life has been one of hardship since day one. Her mother, Molly, was still quite young and already stretched thin from raising Caroline's older brother, Brennan. Her father, Dan, wouldn't win a father of the year award from a prison cell. Somehow, Caroline remained cared for in the necessities of life - she was fed, clothed, and always had a roof over her head. The only real stability Caroline - affectionately dubbed Cari - knew was in the form of her older brother, who was often the one making sure she had food in her stomach and always the one sitting with her at night until she fell asleep.
A few children and several years later, any sense of stability that Caroline had known was pulled from beneath her. After the birth of another sibling, the McGrady kids were put into foster homes. At seven years old, Caroline had no concept of foster homes and things like that. All she knew was that one day she had been with her brothers and her sisters, and the next day she was not. Before long, she was living in a group home and then in the care of an older couple named James and Claire Johnson. The Johnsons were nice people and cared for Caroline well, but she cried daily for her siblings, even for her mother and her father.
Cari would be ten before she saw her family again, and by that time, she had grown used to not seeing them. It wasn't that she had forgotten them or no longer missed them, but a child's mind works in routine. She had settled back into a new routine with the Johnsons, and she had grown to fear and hate disruptions in her routine - good or bad.
By the time Caroline reached her teenage years, she had stepped fully into her mother's empty's shoes. Molly had left, and while Brennan was doing all that he could for the kids, parenting was not a job for just one person - especially just one adolescent boy. Brennan worked hard to provide financially for the family to ensure that they were all well cared for and never split up again - effectively playing the role of father and bread winner of the family. Caroline found her role easily, playing the part of mother to her younger brothers and sisters. Of course, she could never fill the void that would befall them from an absentee mother, but she could provide a sense of love and affection that they had all been denied as children.
For her circumstances, Caroline has done all that she could. College was not exactly an option for her - even if she could have afforded it, she could not have dreamed of leaving behind her family. As a teenager, she worked odd jobs here and there when she could - cutting lawns, babysitting, washing cars, cleaning houses. Today, she works at a hair salon owned and operated by a high school friend. It allows her to work flexible hours, and as she builds up her clientele, Cari has found that it's actually a decent paying job. She still functions as a provider for her younger siblings along with her older brother, Brennan, and she's pretty damn proud of how they've all managed to make it here.
|