You are so right about poverty building character. My mother taught me the values of hard work, sacrifice, humility and honor. She also taught me that, just because a home is humble, doesn’t mean that it can’t be clean. To take joy in the little things. To value G-d and people over things. To always give your best, whatever that is, to a guest. And on and on...
Now she is accepting Social Security. She is physically broken, but she does what she can.
She did write a letter to the state gov’t telling them to please stop sending her food stamps. She told them that she had more than she needed with SS and that they should give it to someone with children.
My mother has always been ‘poor’, but she doesn’t have a bitter, cruel, angry bone in her body. She’s much richer than the OP.
I’m proud to be raised by my poor mother and I regret nothing of my childhood. Our circumstances made me a better human being and I shared those values with my two children.
God bless...keep up the fight!