"About nine children" -- I guess when you pass four maybe numbers become immaterial?

I haven’t been able to shake this image since first seeing it last night. This gaunt woman, relatively young, with “about” nine children, and cancer, has such a defeated and hollow air about her. And to be posed as if for a mug shot, or firing squad, in front of such images that contrast so baldly with her own reality, well, it’s heartbreaking.

What a poignant tableau here, as this poverty-stricken, ailing, and presumably exhausted woman stares into the camera against a backdrop depicting new cars, society weddings, and an immaculate "well-loved" house. We can only hope that her children were at least spared the poisonous effects of the touted lead paint with which that unattainable house was "loved."