My husband and I have been married for over 20 years. We have raised six children and have 12 grand children.

In Feb of 2009 my husband lost his job! We had savings enough to last about six months, and in June 2009 we will not pay our house payment .

This will be the first time we have missed paying our payment on our house we bought four years ago and have never been late on.

My husband is a good and decent man. He has never missed a day’s worth of work in his life, and I mean never - even when sick he went to work. I cannot even begin to tell you how painful this all is. There is no work in five states to be had. My husband worked in the oil and gas sector drilling for natural gas. He is 52 years of age and he and I have been through booms and busts, but this one is the hardest! Maybe because we are older, I don’t know! To make losing our home easier on my husband I told him my happiness is not tied to our home.

We are now moving into a 5th wheel and I am trying real hard to make it like an adventure! But I must admit I am a little scared because we have been turned down for unemployment but will try again later. We are not alone in this. There are so many families in our area suffering. It is sometimes hard to keep from crying for all of us . All I can do is to tell them we are not alone, we are in good company. But that really does not make it any easier, and the feelings of helplessness are so great at times it is hard to bear! I look to the future and realize without a job there is no future for any of us! Without money you are nothing in our society - you are considered worthless. This is the hardest of all to bear; that you can work for 30 years plus and through no fault of your own lose your job. All of a sudden you’re worthless, not trying hard enough, and (the kick in the stomach) you want something for nothing.

It amazes me at times. I must admit that your past 30 plus years means nothing to any one except maybe your children . And as luck would have it, they too are laid off or coming real close to losing there job . Two weeks worth of work and our eldest will be without a job. That leaves only two out of six children with jobs and no guarantees theirs will last the year!!

My four boys are sick with worry. My youngest is the most vocal about it. The other three are very quiet. I say to them all, “we still have air, so we are OK” but they look at me like I am crazy and say “but Mom, how are we going to buy food?” I tell them, “don’t worry, something’s gotta give.” But it’s only getting worse. Four out of six of my children have lost their homes and now us, the parents, are losing ours! My husband’s three brothers are all out of work, so no help there!

My own bother is out of work also. He needs surgery and can not afford it. He has two beautiful daughters and his wife who depends on him. If it was just us out of work it would not be so bad, but almost every family member is out of work
and we can no longer help them because we are now out of work! In the last year we have given over 15,000 dollars to family members to help save their homes, and we don’t know if it will do any good at all. What’s it like to be homeless in America? Well, I am about to find out!! Good luck to us all, for we are going need it.