(CNN) Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren drew upon her upbringing in a poignant look into her background Monday, detailing her parents' struggle and calling them similar to the problems faced by millions of Americans.
During a CNN town hall in Jackson, Mississippi, Warren said her father had a serious heart attack and was unable to get back to work, so her 50-year-old mother was forced to take on a minimum wage job to support the family.
Things were tough, and they lost the family station wagon. Warren recalled her mother saying, "We will not lose this house."
"She was 50 years old. She had never worked outside the home. She was truly terrified," she said.
The story is one that will be familiar to voters who have seen Warren on the campaign trail, where she frequently uses it to connect her economic message with a more visceral reminder of how she views the stakes of the coming election.
Warren's mother managed to save their family home with her minimum wage job, the senator said, something -- Warren routinely notes -- that would not be possible in most households in 2019.
"For a long time I used to think that was just a story about my mother. How when you get scared you reach down and you find what you have to find and you bring it. And then years later, I came to understand that it's the story of millions of Americans who, it doesn't matter if you're scared, when you got to do something to take care of the people you love, you reach down and you find it and you pull it up," she said.
This story has been updated.