My Husband
I’m writing to you about my husband Richard. He was one of the unfortunate people affected by the dot.com bust. It started when he began working for a start up company and it seemed that it would really take off. The company grew very quickly in a short time and my husband had big plans for our future. Unfortunately the company did not succeed and employees were being laid off about a year and a half after its inception. My husband was one of these people and despite the fact that he was laid off the company was still trying to make a go of it and hired him back on a contract basis. A few months later he was laid off again permanently. He was once again in the market for a new career and landed a job that lasted another three months before he was once again laid off. It took him an additional three months to get another job which he had for six months and was once again laid off. He has spent the last 20 months submitting resumes and utilizing his available resources to no avail. In this time frame our debts have continued to increase and we find ourselves having to rely on our credit cards to pay for necessities. Before all this started our finances were finally in the black and we thought we were on the road to a nice comfortable future. We now find ourselves more than $65,000.00 dollars in debt and getting further in the hole every day. He maintains his sanity outwardly but I know inside he struggles with his emotions and is very concerned how we will manage another day. He continues to take contract jobs that are presented as well as notary assignments but we still find it difficult to make ends meet.
For a lot of men their self worth is defined by their ability to provide for their families and their future, my husband is no exception. He feels he is a failure to his family, has lost his self confidence and truly believes he no longer has marketable skills. Throughout all that he faces every day he continues to support our children with their hopes and dreams. He organizes family time at least once a month by finding activities that cost little or no money. He has created his own BBQ sauce and dry rubs, made homemade soap, is working on an online shopping cart and experiments with other ideas he has that could possibly make some money for the household. He is our lighthouse that weathers terrible storms and the keystone that holds our family together. It hurts me greatly to see my husband in turmoil and my wish is that someone can help relieve the burden of debt that hangs over my husbands head. If the situation continues much longer I’m afraid to imagine what will happen next.
I am aware there are many people whose lives are in worse shape than ours but if there is anything that can be done to eliminate the turmoil in my husbands life then I welcome the assistance.