V is about to become FOF and she’s going through a major upheaval in her life. She was terminated as a reporter over a year ago because the newspaper where she worked wasn’t doing well. Her husband, an engineer, lost his job in May. They have an nine-year-old daughter.
Women are on the line now
V’s job hunting has been fruitless. She’s called former associates, friends and friends of friends, but the employment situation remains bleak. She’s been looking for jobs in and outside the media industry. “Unemployment benefits don’t go far, and we’re about to deplete our resources,” V told me. “My mother has helped some, but she’s 84 and on a fixed income, so I can’t ask her for more.
“I wake up in the middle of the night with a pit in my stomach, asking myself, ‘What are we going to do?’ I had a child at 40 and have years until she’s on her own. Am I supposed to start all over again at this point in my life? I’ve even entertained the thought of moving to my mom’s four-bedroom home in the Midwest, but I know I could never do that,” she said.
Despite her stress, V trusts that this will all lead to something good. “I’ve gone through all these months with a good attitude so I’m not going to get down now.” Like I, she believes in fate. “I’m supposed to learn something from this,” she said, philosophically.
V vows that once she and her husband start working again and have some money saved, they are going to do something on their own. Like many FOF women, she is resourceful and pragmatic. She is starting to realize she doesn’t want her future to be in anyone’s hands but her own.
