Emma Patterson and her husband split in the ‘80s, leaving her with the only career she knew: caring for kids.
“I had been married quite a long time, and I was sort of trying to find my way because I didn’t really have a career,” she tells me in an interview for TODAY.com.
“I’d been a housewife ... and I just started taking care of kids,” she adds.
The 88-year-old has fostered more than 40 children in Montgomery County, Maryland, over the last four decades. She is likely one of the longest-serving foster parents in the county and among those who have hosted the most kids, a county spokesperson confirmed to TODAY.com.
Patterson has picked up newborns at the hospital, cared for multiple siblings and housed teenage parents and their babies throughout her career, she says. She has stayed in touch with many of them over the years.
“Trust me, it was not for the money, because they don’t give you that much money to take care of these kids,” she says. “The best part of everything is all of my children have turned out to be absolutely fantastic.”