German wife still foggy

[PortlandDad]

I spoke with my MIL today. She told me that my W is now suffering from severe back pain. Looks like her degenerative disc disease is rearing its ugly head again. Without medical insurance, no doctor has been willing to give her anything stronger than extra-strength tylenol for the pain.

I asked her how she could continue going to school in her current state, and she told me that she was quitting school because of her situation. That was a major revelation to me. One of her MLC dreams dashed.

Then she continued and said that she was going to be going to a job interview tomorrow. That was news to me! I asked her what the job was, but she didn't know. Here is a woman who doesn't even have the German equivalent of a HS diploma, with a gimpy leg and bad back: what kind of 'job' does she qualify for? To top it off, she is an American citizen, so I'm sure there are special tax laws and stuff that any employer is going to have to consider if they even wanted to hire her for anything.

It's frustrating because I have offered her to get her the leg operation ($50 co-pay with my insurance) if she would pay the ticket to come back, but so far she stubbornly refuses my help. Oh well, you can lead a mule to water... or something like that.