Franni and I flew to Portland, Maine, this past weekend to celebrate my mother-in-law Fran’s 101st birthday. (Franni is a junior.)
All Franni’s siblings — Cathy, Carla, Neal, and Bootsie — were there. You may recall Fran’s story. She was widowed at age 29 when her husband, a WWII vet, died in a one-car crash after working two shifts at the paper factory.
Widowed with five kids ages 7, 5, 3, 18 months, and a newborn, Fran struggled to feed her kids. They all somehow learned to laugh about it. “Don’t open the fridge,” Neal would say. “All the food will fall out.”
Franni’s dad died in 1953, 11 years before the Food Stamp program was founded.
Democrats have passed into law all kinds of programs that help families like the Brysons. Can you say Medicare? (It was formed in 1965.)
That’s why all the Brysons who celebrated Fran’s 101st are diehard Democrats. They all made it to the middle class, including Fran who used a GI loan to go to college and become a grade school teacher.
That’s why Midwest Values PAC supports only Democrats (or the odd independent who caucuses with Democrats).
Al
P.S. Here’s a photo from Fran’s 100th birthday celebration last year. She looks damn good, I would say!
