When my mother was in a nursing home there was a lovely woman named Barbara who sat by a window and smiled. When I asked how she was she always smiled and said “I'm warm and I have 3 meals a day; how could I not be happy?” I thought she was a bright light in a dreary place.
Then I met her nephew, who explained that she had never married and worked in the factory in town for fifty years, paid dues to the company-controlled union, and after fifty years retired making minimum wage.
And was often cold and hungry.