What Matters Most

What Matters Most

By: Abbie

A Story about the Great Depression.

Hi! I’m Isabelle Yechson from Cincinnati and I was alive during the Great Depression. I was 10 years old when the stock market crashed. My father was the owner of a car dealership and my mother was a stay at home mom. I went to school at Richardson Academy with my younger sister, Rebecca Joyce and my best friend, Donna. Donna was in the same class as me. One day, after the stock market crash, I got home after school and my dad was sitting in the living room with his head in his hands. I peeked at him from behind the wall and he saw me. He asked me to come and sit with him. I ran out of my spot from behind the wall and went to sit on his lap. His usually cheerful smile was sad looking. “What’s wrong, Dad” I asked him. He answered me with a whisper “Sweetheart, I lost my job today.” I gasped. I had always thought that we had a lot of money. I guess I thought wrong. “What are you 2 doing in here” I heard Mom’s voice through the doorway. “We  were just talking” said Dad in his normal tone. I wasn’t surprised when Mom asked what was wrong. “Dad just told me that he lost his job today” I said with sadness in my voice. “What?” yelled Mom. She had just walked in the room from the doorway. Dad got a worried look on his face. I decided to give Mom and Dad some space, so I went upstairs to Rebecca’s room. She was doing her homework. I told her the whole story from start to finish. I am in 5^th grade and Rebecca is in 4^th grade, but we are very close to each other. She understands everything and that’s why I go to her with all my problems. Anyway, back to the story. So, I told her about Dad’s job and Mom’s reaction. Some of my greatest memories have been spent with Rebecca. Once, I told her everything, we went outside to play with our friends. When we got back in, about an hour later, we had to immediately learn how to be careful with our money. We needed money more for food, not new ballerina dresses. The lesson I learned from this situation was, Even if we don’t have money, we still have family to hold us together.

AfterwordA year later, the Depression ended and Isabelle’s dad found a job. Isabelle and Rebecca grew up to be teachers at their old school, Richardson Academy.