Nan's first job after the divorce was a room attendant with a hotel in Cape May, New Jersey. She made $2 an hour, she had 3 children under the age of 18 to finish raising and they all managed to squeeze in a room in the basement of the hotel. They had room and board so no one went hungry. Nan was 48 and still cleaning toilets, mopping up vomit, making beds and scrubbing floors. Her last 25 years were picking up after her family and no one else would hire her. This was a summer job so she went back to her home town and the children went back to school. She was hired as a  lunch room lady and recess yard attendant for an elementary school. She made $3 an hour. There was child support so she could pay rent and put food on the table. Two blocks from school and two blocks from church, she did not have a car, she had the will to keep going. The job lasted three years and all of the children had turned 18. 

Eleanor took a job in a high society nursing home on the Main Line in Philadelphia. She made $5 an hour but was full time and was given living quarters with meals included. Her job was to be kind, listen to the ladies, provide the necessary assistance in and out of bed. The residents loved her sincerity and her tender touch as she dressed them for their day. They were generous with gifts of shoes, dresses, purses, coats and jewelry they would never wear again. The families of the residents would pick them up on Sunday, take them to church, take them shopping and bring them back to the home by dinner time. As a caregiver, she would read to them, play the phonograph of Harry James and big bands, listen to the radio and embrace them with friendship.

One day she was looking through the want ads in the New York Times and she saw an ad for a companion needed for a couple with health problems. She went on the interview at the corner of 72nd Street and 5th Avenue in New York City. When she got out of the cab she realized she was right across the street from Central Park. She knocked on the penthouse door and the butler answered. She was interviewed by a kind man with passionate eyes and was offered the job on the spot. The wife was in kidney failure and on dialysis three times a week. Their private doctor made house calls plus there were maids 24 hours a day on 8 hours shifts. She moved to New York City and was given a room with the other servants in the building. Her accommodations were a little larger than a closet, she had privacy and a place to hang her hat.

She was 53 and made $200 dollar a week. When she was attending to her employers her meals were provided, otherwise she would walk to the corner deli for a bowl of soup or a corner vendor for a hot dog. Her children and grand children would come up for a Saturday matinee at a Broadway theatre and they would share lots of hugs, stories and time together. Every six months the couple would retreat from the cold and travel to Florida to a penthouse at a luxury hotel in Palm Beach. Nan's brother followed her and they shared an apartment in a neighboring city. The brother worked in banking so he worked graveyard as a night accounting clerk for the hotel. They lived together but only crossed paths briefly during the week and went fishing off their back porch in the adjoining canal on weekends.

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