I sleep like a rock! For years and years, I have dropped off to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. I have had occasional bouts of insomnia, but not often and not for a very long time. Those long ago bouts of sleeplessness were usually caused by excitement. If I was planning some trip, or there was an impending change in our lives, my thoughts might be so vividly in my senses that I’d wake and be unable to sleep. Occasionally, the insomnia was caused by taking a new position on a board or starting some new project. Rarely has my insomnia been a problem because I considered those extra sleepless hours a gift of time to use.
I woke this morning at 2:30 AM. I got up got a drink of water and checked the clock. “It’s definitely too early to rise”, I thought. Back to bed, I snuggled under the warm covers next to my husband, whom I have known for 45 years. Normally, I would have dropped off to sleep like a penny in a well, but not this morning.
This morning, I lay there thinking, “Eight weeks”. My husband, Bill, was told eight weeks ago that he was being laid off. The contract he was working was going to be cut. He had four weeks’ notice with pay and then four weeks without pay to find a new position. That was actually pretty generous. The last four weeks, he still went to work every day but all he did was use a desk, a phone and a computer to search for a new job.
Monday marks the next transition. On Monday, when Bill typically rises to get ready for work, he won’t be going any place. This man, who almost never uses vacation days, never uses sick days, makes the one hour each way commute to Reston, McClean or DC every day, five days a week won’t be doing that.
He won’t be alone. I recently got an email from a classmate from my Leadership Prince William class, asking us to pray for her husband and let her know of any job prospects because after 25 years as an IT professional, he was being laid off.
Wednesday, when we were out shoveling snow, our neighbor of 18 years came over and said, “I guess you see the For Sale sign in my yard.” Of course we had seen the sign, but thought he was moving because he has been a widower for a couple of years and just didn’t want to live in a four bedroom house any longer. I was broken-hearted to learn he is selling because he was laid off in January, hasn’t been able to find another job and just can’t keep up the payments.
The Stock Market is soaring. I particularly loved this story, proclaiming the rise in the market is due to the rosy improvement in the economy. Maybe the brokers should be talking to me or my friend or my neighbor. It’s not looking so rosy for us.
The financial problems Bill and I are going to face are similar to kicking the can down the road. We’re not going to go hungry or lose our house, but these three years of income earning between age 62 and 65 are critical to our retirement. The longer it takes Bill to get another job, the longer he will have to work past retirement age. The care and comfort of the last years of our lives are dependent upon earning a paycheck for at least three more years. Considering our future has suddenly, decidedly , turned bleak…it’s no small wonder I can’t sleep, is it?
