All Good News

Three weeks ago, we were paycheck to paycheck. Our bank accounts were always empty. We survived on my husbands (40/m) job and my (34/f) disability. We have kids.

Also, at the same time, I was experiencing a terrible cyst on my neck that was leaving me bed bound in excruciating pain but the surgery was going to be $8,000 cash, out of pocket, because Medicare only covers 80%.

So on the day of seeing a specialist, my husband took the day off work to go with me. At 7 am, his boss called.

He was being placed on paid leaving, pending an investigation, into a mistake he made at work. Nothing too bad, a technical error, but still an error.

We both panicked. We have been slowly working our way out of poverty for 8 years.. we were so close to being ok and it was all falling away.

We decided to stay positive and just hope for the best. He was a great employee so we thought he would just be written up.

Two days later he checked our bank account for something and found that they had deposited his last check and vacation time. He received the official phone call later in the afternoon.

We were devastated. He cried. We panicked. His last bought of unemployment was 5 months, before that was 2 years. We have no savings account and barely have enough income to pay the bills, but make too much money for any financial assistance.

But we lost our main income. And it was terrifying.

So the next day we gathered our records and went to the welfare office. We had enough money to pay some outstanding bills but the future was uncertain.

The worst part? Long story short, he can’t collect unemployment for 8 weeks (separate issue, but still stands).

So he had the possibility of having $0 income for two months. We were absolutely panicking.

But we applied for food stamps and Medicaid.

Then, we dove into job applications and he sent out resumes to everywhere in the field. He came across some promising companies.

Now, with exactly $0, only enough food to last for about a week, no gas and a good dose of situational depression, we worked together and crossed our fingers.

The next day, he got an email invitation for a phone interview.

And I got a phone call, my neck surgery was going to be free now that we were poor again.

He did the phone interview, the interviewer said that he was a great candidate. A week later he had a video interview and it went great.

He got the job. :-)

They are going to be paying him $3 more an hour than his last job and there is more room for growth.

So we are actually going to be able to afford our bills and like, buy food and pay for medicine. He went from employed but broke to unemployed and screwed to now employed with a better job than before.

And I get to have my surgery. Hooray!

He doesn’t start for two weeks so we are going to spend some quality time together because life is short and he is probably going to go back to working 50 hours a week.

But whew, what a roller coaster ride!