General Discussion

She only had a high school diploma an era where women had just been given access to credit cards. It was tough on her scraping by with two kids and an ex-husband who didn't make good on child support.

Complicating things was her tattered emotional/psychological condition. It took two to tango in fracturing the marriage and her dance steps were to a time signature of histrionics and public meltdowns. Sometimes it manifested in emotional abuse of her family and children, but when your father is basically absent then a child has little choice but to stick beside the unstable mother.

It was a bad situation all around but it could have been worse.