LINDEN, Tenn. — After six months of unemployment, the former nurse and single mother of three is happy paying her rent again, buying school clothes and the occasional coloring book for her children.
"I'm still underwater, but the breathing gets easier every day," said Sheilla Ward, while on break at the
http://www.commodorehotellinden.com/">Commodore Hotel Linden, where she recently got a job paid by federal stimulus money cooking at the cafe. She still can't afford to get her car back or install a phone line at home — essentials she lost while out of work — but she hopes to bounce back over time.
"I couldn't pay my bills or keep gas in the car," said Ward, 40. "I lost the car and then fell into that hole you just can't get out of. I got behind on everything."
Depression-era unemployment rates have dogged this sleepy Tennessee town on the banks of the Buffalo River, where factories have either shut down or scaled back, and more than one in five in the work force are unemployed.
But as millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds flow to hard-hit Perry County, some residents are finally finding jobs and, more significantly, regaining hope.
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090726/BUSINESS01/907260369/In+Perry+County++stimulus+is+working
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