Carol told me the full story.
She told me what Nate had told me in the parking lot, and she told me what Nate did not know.
She told me the decision to send Sophie to Michigan was not made at a kitchen table. It was made in a hospital room.
When the twins were three, David was injured at the plant. A machine malfunction. His right hand was damaged severely enough that the surgery could not fully restore function. He could not return to his position. Workers’ compensation covered a portion of the lost income. The portion was not enough.
Carol was in the hospital with David when the financial assessment arrived. The assessment was not a formal document. It was the particular, internal, devastating arithmetic a family performs when the father’s income has been reduced and the savings are insufficient and the expenses include two three-year-olds who need food, clothing, medical care, and the thousand small costs that accumulate inside a life with small children.
