MICHIGAN TODAY

It was bound to happen. For months Rae and I have been holding our breath waiting for the axe to fall. Every week we wondered if this was the week I would lose my job.

Last month we planned to take a trip to Kentucky to visit my in-laws. My time off was approved and I was relatively busy at work. We left on Friday, came home on Monday and I went in to work to be laid off before noon on Tuesday.

"We have no work. You've been an excellent employee these past 14 years John. We hope to bring you back if...when we get more work." "BUT if you find a job in the meantime, take it!"

I worked for the automotive industry in Michigan. We knew it may come and it did. I'm out of work, have 5 sons to feed and find myself going back to school to gain new skills. It's a depressing thing to know that our home has depreciated so badly that it will take 20 years to pay our mortgage down to what we could get in the going market. It's worse when friends have to uproot their families to other states just so they can put food on the table. Not only are we out of work, but we have nobody to commiserate about it with.

We are losing our friends left and right. Our boys have had to say goodbye to their childhood friends, probably forever. Rae and I have even toyed with the idea of leaving our home behind to start all over. It's not an easy decision. We are used to great credit, but if we can't find work here, the options are starve or move. Michigan is hurting and taking us along for the ride.