@violetmadder Of my dad hadn't been killed by a sudden heart attack, he had a friend who was going to get him a janitorial job at the high school I went to, and our family was THRILLED at the prospect. Union. Benefits. A pension. And even if the hours were not 9 to 5, they were steady. His education had been massively messed up by WWII, and then when he tried to get his Canadian high school diploma, the guidance counselor told him (incorrectly) he had the Canadian equivalent of a grade 4 education and would have to do so the years to grade 12.He spoke five languages, read non-fiction history books for enjoyment (in English, not the languages he'd been educated in), and taught me math I didn't learn in school until grade 10. In Germany, the second country he'd lived in, after the war, he skipped 5 grades. His teacher offered to go to the school board on my grandparents' behalf because they weren't fluent in German. People wind up in all sorts of positions for all sorts of reasons.
