“Quite the opposite,” I said.

“We have time to do this right.”

PART 11: A Different Kind of Gift

In January, a woman named Melissa came to our office wearing a grocery-store uniform beneath her coat.

She was twenty-six and raising a boy who was almost three.

Her nursing assistant program required two weekend training sessions, and her regular childcare arrangement had fallen through.

She didn’t ask for tuition.

She had already paid that with overtime shifts and a tax refund.