Single mom’s options are running out
Mary Bueno, 52, had been steadily employed since her 20s until she lost her job last year. Now she has exhausted her savings and is worried about paying her mortgage.<br><br><runtime:include slug=”la-fi-mary-580image”/><br>
Getting laid off on her 51st birthday was wrenching for Mary Bueno, the manager of the satellite office of a Los Angeles automotive advertising publication.
The truly devastating part was having to tell several of her colleagues in the office that they too had lost their jobs. Bueno said she kept her emotions under control as they cleaned out their desks and said their farewells. Then she was alone. In the silence, she turned off the lights and locked the door.
"There was nobody there to walk out with me and say goodbye," she said. "It didn't hit me until then, and then I cried the entire way home.… It was my birthday — and the worst day of my life."
That was more than a year and a half ago. Bueno now knows how much worse things can be.
She has mailed out more than 200 resumes, scoured employment websites and posted her resume on Craigslist. One of the few nibbles of interest came from someone looking for a maid.
Bueno is worried about making the mortgage payments on her Bellflower home after her unemployment benefits expire this month. Her savings are gone.
Her once-stellar credit score is shot. Bueno dropped her land-line telephone to save money; the upside is that she no longer has to deal with bill collectors calling the house. To raise cash she has held yard sales and even hawked lemons from her tree.
The gym membership and spa treatments ended long ago. She has let the gray creep into her brown locks because she can't afford a salon. Her 13-year-old son wonders why Mom looks older. Bueno has no health insurance. When she recently needed to see a doctor, her 26-year-old daughter paid the bill. Bueno said she's grateful — and ashamed.
"No one wants to rely on someone else, especially your kids," she said.
Employed steadily since her early 20s, Bueno held a variety of jobs, including a 12-year stint as a cost accountant and receptionist for a cargo container manufacturer.
Now she's thinking about switching careers and has begun taking general business courses online using an education grant she got from Cerritos College.
Her toughest challenge now is staying hopeful and positive, trying not to dwell on how far she's fallen — and could yet fall.
"I went from one extreme so quickly to the other," she said. "I had no idea what I was going to be facing, since I've never not had a job."
tiffany.hsu@latimes.com
The truly devastating part was having to tell several of her colleagues in the office that they too had lost their jobs. Bueno said she kept her emotions under control as they cleaned out their desks and said their farewells. Then she was alone. In the silence, she turned off the lights and locked the door.
"There was nobody there to walk out with me and say goodbye," she said. "It didn't hit me until then, and then I cried the entire way home.… It was my birthday — and the worst day of my life."
That was more than a year and a half ago. Bueno now knows how much worse things can be.She has mailed out more than 200 resumes, scoured employment websites and posted her resume on Craigslist. One of the few nibbles of interest came from someone looking for a maid.
Bueno is worried about making the mortgage payments on her Bellflower home after her unemployment benefits expire this month. Her savings are gone.
Her once-stellar credit score is shot. Bueno dropped her land-line telephone to save money; the upside is that she no longer has to deal with bill collectors calling the house. To raise cash she has held yard sales and even hawked lemons from her tree.
The gym membership and spa treatments ended long ago. She has let the gray creep into her brown locks because she can't afford a salon. Her 13-year-old son wonders why Mom looks older. Bueno has no health insurance. When she recently needed to see a doctor, her 26-year-old daughter paid the bill. Bueno said she's grateful — and ashamed.
"No one wants to rely on someone else, especially your kids," she said.
Employed steadily since her early 20s, Bueno held a variety of jobs, including a 12-year stint as a cost accountant and receptionist for a cargo container manufacturer.
Now she's thinking about switching careers and has begun taking general business courses online using an education grant she got from Cerritos College.
Her toughest challenge now is staying hopeful and positive, trying not to dwell on how far she's fallen — and could yet fall.
"I went from one extreme so quickly to the other," she said. "I had no idea what I was going to be facing, since I've never not had a job."
tiffany.hsu@latimes.com
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