Well, that fall, he and a young American woman met and fell in love. She finished her schooling, and they traveled the world as many people did at the time, finding themselves. To the horror of their parents, I'm sure, they hitchhiked through Central America, spent time in Morocco, and rode their bicycles along the entire West Coast of the US. They eloped, and after becoming pregnant with me, they moved back to France so that my father could complete training as a roofer.
When I was two, we moved to Long Island and lived for a time in a bungalow that had been in my mother's family for generations. My mother worked as a sail-maker in the harbor village where we lived, running her own small business. And my father started up his own roofing business - True Roofing & Metal. Soon my sister was born, and then a couple of years later my brother. We didn't have health insurance at the time, as is the case with many small business owners, and my siblings were born at home. My father even "caught" my baby brother who arrived before the midwife could even make it. Things were not easy, but they were good.
But then my mother became sick. She had never really regained her strength after the birth of my brother, and after a few months, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 cervical cancer. She decided not to undergo surgery, partly due to the financial impact and partly due to a belief in the power of natural approaches to healing. Two years later, when I was not quite seven years old, she died. And so here my father was, a young widower with three small children and a struggling small business.
Our church was extremely supportive, and we had a network of family and friends who cared for all of us. On the financial side, because my mother had worked in this country, we were eligible for Social Security payments. Each month, my father received a check from the Social Security administration for each of us three children to help provide for us and ensure that he could continue to grow his small business and make a living.
My father remarried a few years later, and we gained a wonderful step-mother and a step-sister, though we don't use those "titles" in the family. A few months ago, my family suffered another terrible tragedy when my step-sister's fiance was killed in a motorcycle accident. Erin was eight months pregnant at the time, and it has been an extremely difficult time for us. One of her major concerns as she had to navigate through the fog of her mourning and loss was how she would manage to pay her rent now that she no longer had an income. Again, she has a wonderful network of people supporting her, and Social Security will help my sister stay in her house and provide for her brand new baby as they get back on their feet.
As a college student, I went though a period of time when I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life. I wasn't even sure that I wanted to stay in College, so I took some time off to consider my options. Over the course of that year, I became pregnant and quickly realized that my ability to provide the kind of life that I wanted for my baby would be jeopardized if I didn't finish school. So I made plans to come back after the birth. While I was pregnant, I was living in New York City. I worked part-time at three different jobs, waitressing in a diner, part-time secretary for a lawyer, and providing daycare for a family. I didn't have healthcare, either, and I was fortunate to qualify for health insurance through New York's Medicaid program.
When I suffered a complication in my pregnancy that caused my daughter to be born 10 weeks early, a mere 3lbs, I counted my blessings - to be living in a day and age where the technology was so improved that my premature baby could live - and to have her costly care (5 weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit) covered by the government.
I returned to Dartmouth when Marina was 6 months old, and I graduated in 2002. I was ridiculously happy on my graduation day, not just because I had made it through a challenging ordeal of completing college with a small child, but also because my now-husband, Andy Hill, a native of Lebanon, had proposed to me the day earlier.
While I was an undergraduate student, I received health insurance at a very reasonable rate through the College. The program was intended for single people, however, and the cost of adding Marina to the plan was prohibitive. Fortunately, because I was working while completing my studies, Marina was eligible for New Hampshire's Healthy Kids program and received excellent coverage at a time when I was unable to provide it myself.
So why did I share these deeply personal stories with you? It's because I have seen the tremendous power that government has to be a force for good in people's lives on a day-to-day basis. Government should be about a hand up, not a hand out. And, in my life, that is exactly what it's been. These programs - like Social Security, which is not just a retirement program, and like New Hampshire's Healthy Kids program, which was started by Governor Jeanne Shaheen - these programs helped me and my family through difficult times.
Now I feel a strong sense of obligation to give back - to serve my community and my country through public service, to be a leader in my church, and to always try and work together with others to make our community and our world an even better place.
I believe that Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Governor John Lynch, former Governor Jeanne Shaheen, Congressman Paul Hodes, Representative Matthew Houde, Mike Cauble, County Commissioner Mike Cryans, Vanessa Sievers, Register of Deeds Bill Sharp, State Representatives Susan Almy, Laurie Harding, Gene Andersen, and Frank Gould share this commitment. I will be proud to cast my vote for the Democratic ticket on November 4th, and I hope you will join me. Thank you."
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