Here We Go Again!

My mom has had some pretty bad luck lately with her job(s).  It seems like every time we try to plan our Disney trip together, she loses her job and now it has happened again.  We had just booked less than 2 weeks ago, our fun family trip for October 2012.  We are so psyched to stay at the brand, spankin' new resort, The Art of Animation Resort, in a Finding Nemo Suite.  I know that we have up until 45 days to cancel and get our money back and that my mom and dad will say that we won't need to cancel but... it makes it hard to want to talk about it with her if I know she's sad.

Now my mom used to sell life insurance.  She'd been in the field for well over 20 years, starting as a secretary at MetLife and working her way up to being an actual agent, licenced in 48 states at SBLI.  She really loved selling life insurance and if you got her talking about it, watch out!  She could go on and on for a really long time about the pros and cons of different policies and how much a person should have depending on different situations.

Then last year when Mark and I were planning our Disney trip, my mom mentioned that she and my dad would like to come too.  It sounded good to me!  I like to spend time with my parents, they are fun people (most of the time).  So we discussed, were getting ready to book, when SBLI dropped the bomb on my mom.  Her branch and a few of the others were closing, due mostly to mismanagement by the president of the company, not because of poor sales.  They told her and the other 5 or 6 people in the office with an e-mail.  They had no idea it was coming and my mom said her knees would have buckled if she hadn't been sitting down.  So obviously no trip for mom and dad.

My mom was beyond devastated.  The job was hard, the hours sucked, but she loved it there.  She thought she had found the place where she would retire from, even though she had well over 10 years before she could even think about that subject.  She made some great friends that she luckily still keeps in touch with.  The job market was bad, still is.  It took her almost a year and a huge pay cut, think in the 50% range, but finally found something this past April.  It was in a new field, something to do with helping people find ways to save their homes do to non-payment.  My mom didn't particularly like the job, but she tried her hardest.  She worked every weekend even tough she was only required to work one Saturday a month.  She finally started getting the hang of it, feeling like she knew what she was doing and they tell her buh-bye.   That she wasn't aggressive enough, whatever that means.

My mother is by no means a wallflower.  She had a really crappy life growing up, an abusive, alcoholic father until she was 9 and then my grandparents got divorced and I don't think my mom ever saw him again.  She had to work hard, fight for everything that she had.  Once she and my dad got married things were better but I know it was hard.  And now she's got to start fighting again.  Starting over in your 50's is not easy.  I know that my mom won't talk to me about any of this.  She is not a very emotional person, she's always had to be strong, but I know that she's hurting.  I hope that something comes along for her soon to make her smile.  It's not something that she does often lately. :(