“I’m a single mother of four children. When one of my sons was 10 years old, he developed shingles. They covered his face and his chest. My son was in desperate need of care, so I used up my days off of work caring for him. He still needed care, so I stayed home even though I didn’t have any more days off allowed. Because of this I was fired from my job at a time when I desperately needed money to buy my son medicine and feed my family nutritious food so that my other children would not get sick. During this time, paid family medical leave would have been very helpful because I could have taken care of my son and kept my job.”

JoAnn Ndiaye, New Haven