I was born in the UK while we were still on rations after the War. My family was poor, living in social housing, but my father had regular blue collar employment and with my mothers stringent financial management we never went without essentials. Neither of my parents went to college and my mother resented being forced to leave school at age 14. My mother was trapped in an unhappy marriage “by her two children” and spent up to 6 months at a time not speaking to my father. Fortunately I had a good brain and a personality that took to everything with gusto. I did well at school and won a scholarship to an academically selective high school, and another to medical school. I have been successful professionally, moving into international public health, taking jobs around the world and unexpectedly finding my self working in the USA 20 years ago. My husband is from a developing country and although he is from a privileged family, has not had the developed economy advantages I have, and so I have provided for him and our family. We have had a more materially advantaged life than my parents. I own a small apartment in London, our family house in the DC area and our down-sized retirement home in St Augustine, FL. I don’t have much of a professional pension as my UK peers have, but I have contributed enough in social security to get good payments when I am 70 and have a modest 401K.
Ruth HopeSt. Augustine, FL, United States
67%
