"I Stand Here Ironing" Lillian

The story of " I Stand Here Ironing" is narrated by the mother of a girl named Emily. Emily was born to a young mother with little experience in what it took to raise a child. Although Emily's mother loved Emily very much she was always working to support her and almost never seeing her. Through out her early years in life Emily's mother sent her away with various people in an attempt to make her life better. The worst place Emily was sent was to the "convalescent home"(4) where they were suppose to provide better living than the poverty she was experiencing with her mother.  However I think this cause Emily emotional distress as she said "they don't like you to love anybody here"(Olsen 5). When she came back to live with her mother there was an increasing disconnect because although she was still a child she had to be like a second mother to her younger siblings and help with house hold chores.