Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive

Stephanie reaches a point of untenable back pain and physical exhaustion from cleaning. She takes out the maximum amount of student loans, hoping to finish school and spend more time with Mia. She also dedicates time to volunteering with Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services as a receptionist. She hopes this experience will help build and diversify her resume.

Stephanie also finds a two-bedroom apartment she believes will be a good living environment for Mia. In order to afford the apartment, she offers cleaning and landscaping services to the couple who owns it, proposing a work-trade/rent-reduction. The male partner, Kurt, seems enthusiastic about the work trade. The female partner, Alice, seems apprehensive, but agrees. Stephanie is thrilled that she’s improving their situation but feels suspicious about how well things are falling into place.

When Stephanie moves, she leaves her job with Classic Clean. On her last day of cleaning at Henry’s home, he commends her for being a hard worker—one of the hardest he’s ever seen.

Stephanie reflects on the ways poverty has forced her to be shortsighted about the future, explaining:

I compartmentalized my life the same way I cleaned every room of every house—left to right, top to bottom. Whether on paper or in my mind, the problems I had to deal with first—the car repair, the court date, the empty cupboards—went to the top, on the left. The next pressing issue went next to it, on the right (241).

The loan, the new home, and the changes to Stephanie’s living situation afford her the opportunity to dream a bit further into the future.

Stephanie also reflects that her middle-class background—and the example her mother set by moving out of poverty and earning a master’s degree—gave her a pre-established image of a different life, of other possibilities. She muses:

I wondered about the people who waited in lines next to me for benefits who didn’t have such a past to look back on. […] When a person is too deep in systemic poverty, there is no upward trajectory. […] But for me, many of my decisions came from an assumption that things would, eventually, start to improve (242).

As Stephanie continues to write on her blog, venting her frustrations about financial worries and single motherhood; she is encouraged by the solidarity she receives. Many of her readers leave comments such as, “If you can handle life with a three-year-old by yourself, in a tiny space, with so little, then I can, too” (246).

Stephanie takes a job helping a family of hoarders move from their old house into a new one. Throughout the process, she feels a strange mix of guilt and frustration, knowing they can’t afford her services and will likely return to their old habits in the new home. Nevertheless, she sees cleaning the home as a significant gesture of kindness for people who are struggling. She tells Mia, “That’s my job. To help people” (251).

Stephanie’s advocate at the domestic violence nonprofit (where she also volunteers) moved to Washington from Missoula. When Stephanie tells her advocate about her dream to move to Missoula, the advocate encourages Stephanie to do so, saying Jamie doesn’t have the right to dictate where she can live. She tells Stephanie the move could give her the opportunity to pursue a better education, thereby procuring better opportunities for their future. Wanting to serve as a strong role model for Mia, Stephanie finally decides to pursue the move. She wants Mia to feel empowered to follow her own dreams.

Alice also “fires” Stephanie from the work-trade/rent-reduction contract, claiming she isn’t doing a good enough job. Stephanie learns from Kurt that the real reason she was “fired” is because Alice lost her job and is worried about money. This increase in rent cements Stephanie’s resolve to move.

At long last, Stephanie visits Missoula and immediately falls in love with the city’s mountains, rivers, and warm atmosphere. She decides she must move there.

When Stephanie tells Jamie she’s moving to Montana, he meets her with resistance. Prompted by Jamie’s emotional manipulation, Mia cries that she doesn’t want to move. When Stephanie tells Mia she bought pink cowboy boots just for her, however, the tone immediately changes.

Though Mia initially struggles with the big change in environment, she quickly adapts. Stephanie especially loves hiking with her daughter, and the book ends with the two of them looking over their new home from the top of a scenic mountain. Mia’s eyes glow and Stephanie reflects they have climbed a metaphorical mountain to reach a better life.