This letter was written by a 14 year old girl to the principal of her school, who forwarded it to us. It reads:
My parents are divorced and the house is terribly unstable. Our dinners usually consist of bread and eggs.
There are cockroaches everywhere. I’m so used to seeing them stroll along the kitchen table that I don’t even flinch as they saunter by. No matter how much I clean, the house is always dirty, filthy.
Mommy is usually in bed all day. She cries a lot. I try to comfort her. I bring her tea and a water bottle; she likes that. I’m always strong. The younger ones need me.
I study hard-sometimes. Nobody really cares how I do in school. If I like the teacher, I study and concentrate, and usually grade in the 90’s. If I don’t I just sit there politely and get away with an 80 or so. It’s hard to understand why my classmates act up, misbehave, and laugh at silly things. Who knows, maybe I’ll never understand.
My favorite day of the week is Thursday night. Tomche Shabbos (a charity organization) delivers a package and I always stay up waiting for it. I tell my mother that I love her and she should go to sleep – I’ll unpack. Truth is, I want to get all the goodies before the other children get to it.
