Why I Revealed My Poverty Secret

Why I Revealed My Poverty Secret

During the more prosperous decades that followed, my history of impoverishment faded into a secret on its own. Recent acquaintances had no idea of my poverty struggles. They didn’t know I had once been briefly homeless or so poor that I washed my kids in a McDonalds’ restroom. No one knew that, back then, the only way I could only afford sanitary supplies by systematically amassing change from multiple food stamp purchases. By 2010, all that anyone saw of me from day to day was someone who appeared to have it all together.

I wasn’t intentionally concealing those facts about my past. It was just that nothing had warranted me bringing them up. That is, until I realized the value of sharing my story. Friends suggested that people could learn from my poverty experience and be inspired by how I managed to escape it.

I, myself, had reached a rather sad conclusion: not much about the welfare system had improved in over 25 years. In the fall of 2011, I decided to devote my time to writing about the lessons I’d learned back in the day, while barely eking out a living. I would uncover my personal poverty story, write it, and put it out there.

It took five years to write my gritty memoir, A Day at the Fare: One Woman’s Welfare Passage. There were so many truths to tell. I insisted the book be thought-provoking, authentic, and polished—something its readers could truly feel. To ensure this, I reconstructed my story’s timeline using copies of actual welfare records.

One of the toughest decisions I wrangled with as I shared my poverty experience in writing, was how much of my personal affairs I should reveal. I would be making myself more vulnerable than ever before.

“You have to tell enough to leave a mark, Pamela, or there’s no sense in you writing it,” I reminded myself. “Remember the purpose of writing your book.”

A Day at the Fare
poverty experience
Posted in Advocacy, Books, My Writing Life, poverty experience, Success Stories and tagged , .

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