Learning to live with chaos

At 12, Alice Gilbert negotiated for a dental procedure using her babysitting money as payment. A resident of Providence Mount St. Vincent, she shares with volunteer Jane Ashe about the lean times as the middle child of six – her father was an alcoholic; her mother was a workaholic by necessity. Alice says having to work while also attending middle and high school imbued her with a sense of freedom and self. Edit credit: Sean Collins