Did she get anything good for her efforts? Overtime pay? Bonuses? A promotion to management?
Usually the answer to these questions is "Nope", but I'd love a surprise ending on this story?
Let's just say the funds did go to meaningful causes for the family rather than be spent frivolously.
She did get the legally obligated overtime, which I think was 1.5 times the normal wage.
She was going to get training for manager assistant but one, predatory government (guardianship) consumed her remaining time to the court and law. She stared down the criminal charges for elder abuse and was acquitted by jury trial. The guardianship battle was a separate battle that require tactics similar to the matter Britney Spears is dealing with now, though to a smaller scale. Had to pay $3000 US dollars to get her sister to come over here. The lawyer for the guardianship utilized the Chinese press to spread some publicity of the situation.
Since she won guardianship back, she had to care for her mother, me, and my sister, so eventually she dropped the 7-Eleven job.
She also worked at Safeway, first as cashier, but then moved to the more physically demanding Bakery section. Then in 2004, she got a major car accident and no longer could work anywhere. Did get an insurance settlement. Her fiscal abilities to save money was extremely disciplined and thus she had a large stash of funds saved up. She was able to this even though she was a immigrant that started off with no English and could not get more than the low-end jobs from the above companies. She paid off the mortgage way early for a townhouse she bought in the early 90s.
Working under tight constraints has been the constant in her life starting from birth. Born in Communist China, she was one of the many whose educational path over there would be ended by the Cultural Revolution, thus the work that can be done would be the working class grade jobs like in the factory. It wasn't just the immediate family, but her daddy's brother that needed support through my grandmother(her mother). Her dad(my grandfather) would be ended early by a combo of TB and other infections(I think blown appendix). She was born into wealth in China, and all of it was taken away, but built back up a substantial rainy day fund via just min wage jobs, some welfare from both public and private orgs.
She was able to immigrate here because her granddaddy was quite fecund. He had many wives after the earlier died, so the extended family was large and some had already immigrated to the US, setting themselves up in the likes of New York and Long island. IIRC, she had an uncle in NY and a half-brother running a restaurant in Long Island. Things did not immediately get rosy here either. My dad was a selfish prick and the marriage wound up being costly for her as well.
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