I was up late tonight and reading online at the PBS website about a Portland couple who lost their long time business and are selling off their possessions, just to keep their home. What drew my attention was a comment posted by a person going by the name of "Doug" (on Oct. 13th). I've excerpted his comment for this post and I'm leaving a link to the video and article about their situation.
I can identify with this person in so many ways! Unlike Doug spending the last years looking for work and 450 applications out, I've put out nearly 400 applications in 8 months; and his most poignant and profound insight, parallels my situation of late:
"without one friend, I'd be homeless; without the other, starving." And, like Doug, I'm not eligible for unemployment: I'm a skilled tradeswoman and cannot find a suitable job in my former professional field and seemingly like Doug, I'm 51 and it appears that I cannot find a job due to my age. I might be 51, but I'm still young enough to work, I've got miles of experience, and I don't need an exhorbitant salary (a living wage is fine with me) - you'd think I could find a job, but I hold faith that the universe will help me, him and cajillions of others like us out there, to find suitable work with equitable pay.
I don't know about most of you here, but I wonder what it will take for people to realize that our country is in more than just a recession.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know...s-crisis/4172/
"In 2005, I had a $45,000/yr job in beautiful Oregon (I had worked up from $25,000/yr just four years before). It was more than enough to support my wife and two high-school age children. But then I lost the job, partially due to illness. Soon I couldn't pay the rent, and I had to give most of my stuff away because I didn't have time to sell it.
We moved to Wisconsin to be near my wife's mom. The kids went on to college. For a time, I was making enough from self-employment work to support us, but then I lost my main client. Then I got ill again. In September '09, my wife went to live with her mom; I moved in with a friend.
I've been looking for work (something like 450 job applications in the last two years, but no one wants to hire a fifty-year old guy). Then my wife started divorce proceedings in February of this year. I then found out she put $15,000 in charges on our credit card. Then she broke her leg and charged another $15,000. The judge allocated $6,000 of the debt to me because of her medical expenses. Meanwhile, my son graduated in biology last year, and has been working since as a barista at a coffee shop (the same job he did in college). My daughter also works while putting herself through school. The only money I get is from a friend in Oregon who sends me small writing projects to do. Without one friend I'd be homeless; without the other, starving.
Since high school, I've worked hard, paid for college and graduate school, and supported my family. I used to have excellent credit, but that's gone now because of the debt my wife sprang on me. Now, I have a sizable negative worth, feel like a burden on my friends, and worry about my future, my kids' future, and yes, even my ex-wife's future. The upside is I have more time for self study and improvement through tools like the library and Internet (and W3C courses, GIMP, Kompozer, Inkscape; you get the idea). As far as our two major political parties go, one never seems to propose a program to help someone like me (I'm not eligible for unemployment, not a construction worker, not a minority, not a homeowner, and so on) while the other only cares about the rich (guess which one). Without my faith, my friends, and my family (what's left of it), I would not be able to go on another day. May things change in this country for all the decent, hardworking people like the Crandall's; this I pray." ~ Doug, October 13th, 2010 (12:43am)