My family is broken.
My mom missed meals on several occasions because there was only enough food to feed all of us. My mom didn't have a bed until I was 15 years old. She slept on a couch... I remember laying with her, like I used to sleep with my mom until I was like 12. I was a big baby; I'm a momma's boy. But my mom is my best friend, and never let me down, ever.
When I was growing up, my family was plagued by poverty. My mother, a single parent, worked around the clock to make sure her children - me, my five brothers, and three sisters - could eat and have a safe place to sleep. We hardly saw her.
When my father went back into the military in 1947 and was gone for 3-1/2 years, my mother was 24 years old with four kids in a town she didn't know that well with no military services available, no family services available through the military, and that was the norm.
There were days when my father didn't have money for food, and we slept hoping the next day something could be got from work.
Being a mom, I can't imagine my child not having a meal. That's hard to digest.
Egypt was tough without our parents. My brothers and sisters had to work day by day, and every time they collected a pay cheque, they brought it into the house and put it on the table. That's how we lived.
When I was a teenager, my father went bust. He could have declared himself bankrupt, but he was an honourable man and he insisted on paying back all his debts. That almost ruined the family. I was aware that my mother and father couldn't control things anymore. I guess I was afraid that we would end up on the street.
I loved my mom so much because she had to work on a penny just to put food on the table... During the Depression in the United States, everybody had a tough time. And I was so hurt because she was crying that she didn't have any food for us for Thanksgiving.
When mom and dad went to war the only prisoners they took were the children
I am super close with my brother. He is my ultimate role model. Growing up and having a family break apart, you know, when my parents divorced and things like that, it was a struggle, and all we had was each other at the time.
No family in America should have to go on national television to save their child’s life.
My family kinda hit the skids. We were experiencing poverty at that point. We all got a job, where the whole family had to work as security guards and janitors. And I just got angry.
There are no tricks to balancing work and family. It is a struggle all the time, and you just do your best. I think men are much better at compartmentalising.
I grew up poor in India, and there were days when we struggled to find food and other basic necessities. Our mother worked odds and ends jobs to keep the family together and educate us.
Imagine being the parent of a six or seven-year-old who needs a transplant and there is no match. I understand now what that means.
I was very close to my mother, and her death, which left a gaping hole in my life, has been very difficult for me and my father in a lot of ways.
Whatever people's backgrounds or values, a society where more and more people face a daily struggle to house, clothe and even feed themselves and their families cannot possibly be the answer.
'The Talk-Funny Girl' opens with a glum picture of a desperately poor rural New England family. Poverty has so brutalized the family that the ordinary laws and rules governing humanity have eroded, turning systems of behavior upside down.
To try to raise a son from inside the prison walls is a very difficult thing. But I want to say to the world my son at 16 was the one who tried the most to get me out of prison.
I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.
Life was difficult for my family, as we didn't know where to go after leaving Kashmir. We settled down in Mumbai, in a suburb called Mira Road.
When people see Barack Obama, they don't necessarily see an African-American president. They see someone who is a child of immigrants. They see someone whose family has worked hard and struggled. And they see many similarities between themselves and Barack Obama.
When I was nine years old, my family lost our home, and the six of us moved into my grandparents' converted garage.
My parents worked super hard when they came to America. They had three jobs each. I didn't really see them that much.
