This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dorenne Simonson, 66, who is her granddaughter's kinship care provider in New Jersey. Simonson has parented her since she was two months old. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. I've always been in a situation where I had to spend whatever I made. There's no retirement account when you're single and raise five kids by yourself.
Kentucky, the state where I was born, raised and educated, has a rampant child abuse and neglect problem that's left thousands of children in out-of-home placements. Some children who can't find placement sleep in office buildings; others go to kinship care families who, thanks to a dispute between the executive and legislative branches of government, aren't getting the financial assistance they need.