(CNN) -- The three mothers hail from the same province in China, but they'd never met until a reckless driver in central Ohio killed their only children. From left, Sun "Zoe" Yan, Bian "Jack" Jin and Xue "Jo" Bing were students at Urbana University in Ohio. Two years later, the women wade through a cultural morass, struggling with American laws and language as they work to recoup the tens of thousands of dollars they borrowed to educate, and bury, their children. They've also lost their pride and possibly their future. In China, a family's future often rides on the education of its youngest member, and parents routinely mortgage the present for a brighter retirement.
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Jason Skaggs had vehicular homicide conviction before he killed students
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Mothers plead for help paying off thousands they borrowed to send kids to U.S.
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Mother: "When you raise a child in China, you are basically insuring your old age"
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Families earn between $102 and $702 a month in pay, pensions in China
Each family borrowed in the neighborhood of 300,000 yuan, almost $44,000, to send their kids 6,500 miles to @placeholder.