Letter to the editor

While I sympathize with Gene Wolfe’s plight, I can’t help but wonder

what more there is to this story (“I’ll be home for Christmas?” Dec. 12).

Millions of women are single parents. They work full time, care for

their children, manage their homes and a few even find time to have some

sort of life. Wolfe says he is homeless because he couldn’t find

child-care and therefore lost his job.

Twenty years ago, when my children were toddlers --- one was 3 and one

was 18 months old -- [I became a single mother].

I had no job and no money. I managed to find a job and child care and

kept a roof over our heads and food on the table, all without going on

welfare or food stamps.

I did not have a trade as Wolfe does; my only skill was an ability to

type. Oftentimes there wasn’t enough money to pay the bills and buy food,

but we managed.

My experience is not unique; it has happened and is happening to

millions of women across our country. I wonder how all those women seem

to manage and why Wolfe can’t, and why his situation warrants a

sympathy-evoking write-up in the newspaper and the plight of all the

women in the same situation don’t.

While child care is expensive, it is definitely not hard to find. Open

any newspaper, drive around any community and you will find an abundance

of it available.

While my heart goes out to Wolfe’s children for the situation they

find themselves in through no fault of their own, I have little sympathy

for Wolfe.

He is a healthy man with a marketable skill and there seems to be no

reason for him to be in his situation except for a lack of

resourcefulness and/or drive.

As a woman, I am offended by the sympathy and attention given to this

man while all the women dealing with the same circumstances that he

claims drove him to homelessness are ignored.

SUSAN SPEIGELMAN

Fountain Valley