CHICAGO — It was the second week of December, and Amanda Ullah was counting the minutes to payday so she and her roommate could purchase a Christmas tree for their little apartment, perched above a bar on Chicago’s North Side.
Ullah was 22 at the time, and her younger sister, one of Ullah’s six siblings, had recently moved in with her from Florida.
“My parents were not great,” Ullah said. “But Christmas was the one time of year they would get their act together. I felt like if they can do it, I can figure it out.”
