My parents had died in a car accident when I was eight years old and I was placed with a friend of my dad. She kept me clothed and fed but considered that the end of her responsibilities. She was gone before I caught the bus in the morning and came home several hours after I went to bed. She never attended school functions, never took me shopping, and never helped with my homework. If my grades dropped, I would find a note on the kitchen table with a warning. No offer to help with whatever subject I was struggling to understand, just an impersonal note threatening punishment.
