From job to job to job, a life lived - and lost (raise the minimum wage!!!!)

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141025/us--the_final_shift-99910ba7e4.html

Oct 25, 11:59 AM (ET)

By ADAM GELLER

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — The fumes, reeking of gasoline, poured from the white Kia SUV as soon as an emergency medical technician broke one of the rear windows. Inside, the body of a dark-haired young woman with a beauty mark on her left cheek reclined in the driver's seat, keys dangling from the ignition.

But who was she? How was it that her life had ended here, in the corner of a convenience store parking lot, less than a mile south of Newark Liberty International Airport's runways?

Waiting for the vapors to clear so they could search her belongings, police noted the most obvious clue: She was wearing a familiar white-and-brown uniform. By that night, co-workers and friends had identified her as Maria Leonor Fernandes, 32 years old and single, who worked minimum wage jobs at three nearby Dunkin' Donuts shops — often grabbing an hour or two of sleep in her car between shifts.



ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, OCT. 26, 2014, AND THEREAFTER- In this Sept. 5, 2014 photo, Richard Culhane, holds his sons Dorian, 9, left, and Jareth,11, during a funeral service for Maria Fernandes, 32, in Newark, N.J. Culhane was a former boyfriend of Fernandes. When Culhane{2019}s mother died, Fernandes bought him and his three sons suits for the funeral, which they wore to Fernandes' funeral. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)


Within days, Fernandes was being mourned as a tragic heroine, a victim of our times. Far beyond the Newark neighborhood where she rented a basement room with bath for $550 a month, her death became fodder for online commentary. People speculated, mistakenly, that she had been living in the U.S. illegally, or had committed suicide. Mostly, they pointed to her as a casualty of modern economics that forced someone to work so hard for so little money.

FULL story at link.