and away I go

Well I've finally done it, I've gone off the deep end and decided to write a blog. I'm still not sure what I'm doing nor why, but I hope that as I go along I'll finally figure it all out. So let me begin at the beginning....

Four years ago my family was a lot like other families. We had our share of ups and downs, fights and fun financial woes and tough times, but it always seemed like things could and would get better. Don't get me wrong I still think things will get better, I just think it's going to take a whole lot longer than I originally had in mind.

My husband was working and I was a homemaker. Yeah I know kinda "old fashioned" isn't it? But I loved my job, raising my kids and seeing them grow into wonderful young adults was a joy for me. Times were tight, we had to make do with one paycheck rather than two but we still were making a go of it. Until that day in January when the recession finally came home to roost with us.

You never really think about what life is about until your world turns upside down. My husband worked hard making harnesses for airplanes. (apparently a harness is something like the instrument panel of a plane), at least I think that's what it is I'm not into avionics I leave that to him. We were going merrily along until the day my husband called me and said that there had been a gathering in the cafeteria of his workplace and that the boss called out the names of employees that were being laid-off and his was one of the names called. Those whose names were not called cheered and high fived each other, while those who were went up, took their information envelopes and went to clear out their lockers. He finally had a job he seemed to enjoy, even going so far as to create technical guides for wiring the harnesses and poof....suddenly he was told to say goodbye.

You've never really lived until you've tried to live on Employment Insurance. Very little money to work with, no transportation assistance, no medical assistance and bills piling up around our ears. When his job vanished so did our ability to pay the bills, and the creditors were none to happy about that, the calls started about a month after I announced to them I couldn't afford the payments. Every single day, accusations of how I was a bad person who was deliberately trying to "weasel out" of my debt obligations. My husband went and signed up for some programs to figure out what to do next, and I just tried to keep things together.

It only took about two years for our benefits to run dry and for us to be forced onto the most dreaded system of all, OW or welfare. But that is a story for another day.