Carole is one of ten children in a French-Canadian family. Both parents were alcoholics. She was sexually abused by her grandfather, abused by her mother, and sent through a series of foster homes. She finally ran away at 15, lived as a street kid, survived as a prostitute, and went on to have four children. She is a remarkable survivor, a good mother, a warm, sensitive, intelligent woman - and now an author. When we started working together, she told me she had always wanted to write a book. So she began her autobiography, which became the focus of our work together. I then helped her apply for a Canada Council Exploration grant. She got it. The first thing she did, when she got the check, was to buy a basic computer. She was stunned that she could have such a thing. She set it up, and started typing.

Eight months later, she has completed a first draft of her book. She is thinking about returning to school. Along the way, she and I have had our difficulties. Mostly the problems were of my making. I often expected too much. I would get mad when I would go to her place to work, and she would be too tired because she'd stayed up until four in the morning watching TV. I expected her to have work habits like mine. I was writing a biography of Ed Broadbent while she was doing her own autobiography, and I would sometimes feel she just wasn't serious. Then she would amaze me, producing an eloquent, devastating chapter on say, the grandfather who repeatedly raped her, and I would be overwhelmed at her courage and stamina.

Then I would give her a lecture on the evils of Kool-Aid, which she served her kids in place of juice, and nag her about turning her TV off from time to time. She would humour me, and then withdraw. I began to see myself acting in less than charming ways. Sometimes, I felt overwhelmed by her plight, alternating between feeling sorry for her and angry at her for having so many kids. She would then tell me she was a good, loyal Catholic and that she didn't believe in abortion. I would argue about "what kind of world did you bring your kids into, how can you have so many kids when you can't take care of yourself!" We would reach an impasse. On one thing we agreed: living on welfare is a rotten way to live. Carole told me: "It's so easy to get on welfare and almost impossible to get off."

Having gone through all these feelings, I'm hoping we can continue together this fall, and do the more mundane work involved in grade nine correspondence courses. I've come to treasure my friendship with Carole and hope we can make it through another year. I have finally realized that in her own way, she has achieved an enormous amount. And the bottom line for her is now clear: without an education, she's not going anywhere.

As for the straight world, there's lots to be done. If more people would team with more people who need to learn, we might get somewhere on a massive scale. We don't need more institutions. We need more attention to the people for whom this world is a nightmare.