She hadn’t grown up with any particular desire to care for people. In fact, she had enjoyed working at the cardboard factory, making boxes and store displays and not having to give a shit. Working beside her sister, Julie, gabbing for eight hours, and then leaving her work behind her wasn’t a bad life.But then their mother got sick and didn’t have the money to get the type of care she needed. The constant kind. She ended up in a horrible nursing home, and though neither Carol nor Julie felt a huge amount of pity for the bitter, old woman, they felt a responsibility they couldn’t shake.So they discussed the situation, even though it was pretty clear to Carol from the get-go who would be picking up the slack. Julie was a single mom. Carol loved her niece so much that she couldn’t even feel any anger. She didn’t have children. Didn’t have anyone except Julie and her little lady Lacee. So she started spending her nights at the local community college, and in two exhausting years she had her LPN.The irony of becoming a nurse to be able to pay someone else to take care of her mother was not lost on Carol.At the school’s placement fair, a number of potential employers courted Carol.
