Thursday, June 25, 2015

Postscript

If you are reading this blog for the first time let me give you a brief recap.  My husband lost his job in 2008.  I lost my job in 2009.  We were told to update our skills, attend outplacement meetings, unemployment support groups, all of which we did.  We were told to reinvent ourselves.  Our lives were up in the air.  
I would recommend watching the movie, Up in the Air, about people losing their jobs and what a devastating experience it is.  When one person in a family loses their job it is frightening.  Try to imagine having two people without a job in a household.  You know your life will never get back to where it was especially when you are both in your late 50s and early 60s, no matter what you do to try to fix it.  Not everything can be fixed.

Then to add insult to injuiry, my husband had a stroke in 2010.  We put our house on the market and after a year took it off the market.  I became a substitute teacher and my husband got a temporary part time job in a library.  We cut back on everything and continued to live in NJ.  After a while, it became clear that we could no longer afford to stay in NJ.  We put our house back on the market in 2014 and four months ago, moved to Delaware.  

It was a big adjustment, picking up and moving lock, stock and barrel to another location where we didn't know anyone especially when we never wanted to move in the first place.  Both our families are still in NJ.  We are gradually adjusting to our new life here and although there are things we miss about our old life, there are more plusses than minuses to the decision we made to relocate.  It was, after all, a matter of survival, something we had to do.

We reinvented ourselves all the way to Delaware.

I am still substitute teaching.  We live in a nicer house in a friendly community and all things considered, it's not bad.  It's just different but we are okay.