Life after RV layoffs

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Story Published: May 1, 2008 at 9:20 AM PDT

By Meghan Kalkstein

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CRESWELL, Ore. - About 300 people lost their jobs at RV manufacturer Monaco. Now those people are worrying about life after the layoffs.

Deidre Odell is staying optimistic but relying on some old-fashioned skills to get her by.

For some, when it rains it pours.

"Dear Deidre, as previously communicated Sept. 28, 2007, will be your last day of employment with our company," Odell reads from a letter.

Odell was fired last fall from Kwikee along with dozens of others when the RV and accessories plant shut it's doors. The letter came at a time when Deidre and her newly married husband were buying their house.

"We had had a lot of time and money invested in getting the house up to standards for the loan and it was a pretty scary time," says Odell.

Even though her husband works, losing that second income left their hope flickering. "Not knowing when my next paycheck will come is scary," says Odell..

So she knew she had to do something. She landed a job at Monaco, through a temp agency.

That didn't last long.

"Two supervisors came in and told me that my time was over," she says.

The layoff squashed her plans for a late honeymoon.

"My husband and I were starting to make some plans," she says.

The couple made other adjustment to their lifestyle.

"We lived off of this elk my husband hunted last winter," she says as she shows a picture. "Canning and baking bread and just pulling on those old life skills I think is going to be the best way to make it through hard times."

And the rest, she says, will rely on hope.

"I'm disheartened, but I don't have any other choice, but to keep pushing on," says Odell.

Odell says a temporary service is trying to find her another job.

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