I was an orphan, and so was my father.

My father's father worked in the coal mines of upstate Pennsylvania and died of a lung disease, leaving my grandmother with five children in the early 1930s. The eldest was old enough to work and support himself (though I think he was younger than 18), but the four youngest were still school age. My grandmother made the difficult decision to place the four youngest children in a Lutheran orphanage in Philadelphia, forever referred to in family legend as "the Home."

My grandmother enrolled in what was then Kutztown State Teacher's College. After she received her degree, she attempted to get the children out of the Home, but was told to do so, she must have a job and a place to live. She attempted to get a job as a teacher, but was told that in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, women with school-age children at home were not allowed to be teachers.

Talk about your Catch-22.