Later on when I was more capable of doing something to get my own breakfast my mom bought boxes of the new product called Instant Breakfast. I mixed it with milk and it was my breakfast every morning- chocolate of course. I am not a fast food fan but this really enabled me to leave for school with some nourishment.
My mother gave me a key to our front door so I could get in our house when the school bus dropped me off every afternoon. I can’t remember where I stored the key but it didn’t matter because no matter what I tried to help my childlike memory, I was incessantly losing, misplacing or forgetting my house key. That meant habitually going to a neighbor who had a spare key to bail me out.
One day my mo came up with a brilliant idea. She purchased a long silver chain and hung the key onto it. Every morning I had to wear my new necklace inside my clothes so I would not lose or misplace the house key. It worked quite well as I rarely forgot to wear the new jewelry. When I got home I’d pull out and stretch the chain so the key reached the door lock. Thus I entered the empty house except for the times we had one of my best friends living there- a dog.
Mom insisted I call her on our phone at her office as soon as I got inside the house which I did every day. I give her credit for using her ingenuity to do the best she could to provide and care for me with what she had to work with. I just missed her all the time and always longed for more time with her and time to be physically near her which happened rarely. Mom was never highly affectionate but I knew she cared.
I did not know until many years later that there was a name for me- “Latch-key child.”
