It wasn’t me; it was my Mom, when she was twelve. She told me this during her final hospital visit.
As a pre-teen, Mom had already lost her father and her mother, and she and her two brothers were living with her paternal grandparents at this time in East Texas. Mom’s grandfather had just died and friends had gathered in their living room to pay their respects, as they say. Mom was in a hallway when she overheard a lady talking to other ladies.
“Those kids need to go to an orphanage. Betty (who was in her ‘60s), can’t raise them … they’d never amount to anything.”
Mom ran out to the back porch, crying, and stomped her favorite foot.
“I will to amount to something! I will!!”
Well, Betty Ballard did raise those three children with the help of God, their church, and the three kids pitching in. All three finished college. The oldest boy helped develop our radar systems, the youngest boy was a purchasing agent for McDonnell Douglas and had a big influence on me, and Mom was a school teacher, a great mother, and worked hard all her life.