At age 11 she played the organ for five masses every Sunday, two on Saturday and two before school every day. The oldest and only daughter of seven, she lived in a cramped house on a city street steps away from relatives. Her father, a laborer, worked two jobs. When she turned 12, she became the caretaker of her six brothers after her mother had a mental breakdown and was hospitalized for a summer. “I felt a lot of pressure and I felt she (my mother) was living her life through me. The pressure was good and bad. My mother pushed me especially because I was the only girl.”