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She Sold Her Daughter’s Virginity to Pay for College
When education costs drive extreme measures — a desperate tuition tactic.
It’s not my place to name names, so I will call her Sharon.
Sharon and I have been friends since grade school. We took catechism classes at the same Lutheran church. Our fathers used to go deer hunting together in the fall.
She married before I did, and I suspect she was already pregnant with her daughter, Cheryl, but it never seemed necessary to discuss it. Neither of us considered being a virgin on your wedding night to be that important. Sharon’s husband enjoyed a long career as a Boeing engineer, and they have two other children, both boys.
I’ve watched Cheryl, who calls me “auntie”, grow into a pretty young woman with grace and charm and a budding sense of wit.
The family recently went through a tragic time when her father died of prostate cancer.
Sharon, now widowed, is working as a cashier/hostess in an upscale seafood restaurant.
I knew that of all her children, Sharon especially wanted a university education — something she herself had never had — for her daughter, Cheryl.