MEGAN PAPENFUSS

A weight lifted

Nearly two and a half months after applying for unemployment for the first time in her life, 29-yearold Megan Papenfuss was still waiting for a payment.

Bills and stress had smothered her and her husband Blake, sending her blood pressure soaring and her eightmonth pregnancy into high risk.

Her 3-year-old’s day care in the Columbus area closed. So Papenfuss, who lives just across the state line in Alabama, started bringing Maddy to work with her at the car dealership chain where she was making enough to be “a little above paycheck to paycheck.”

Eventually, the boss said no more kids in the office. And she wasn’t allowed to telework. He suggested she go on unemployment. Within a week she applied for unemployment benefits. Then, silence from the Georgia Department of Labor.

She called, emailed and reached out on social media dozens of times. She got a notice about turning in an affidavit, but the zip code on the address given by the state was wrong, she said, and one round of paperwork never arrived.

“Thank goodness my husband is still working,” Papenfuss said. He’s a service adviser at an agricultural equipment service company.

They received a $2,900 stimulus check, got lenders to defer mortgage and car loan payments and borrowed money from her parents to cover groceries and some insurance bills. By late June the house and car note deferrals are scheduled to end.

Tuesday, everything changed. Back payments for unemployment popped up in their bank account. “It was awesome,” she said. They immediately paid their house and car payments and repaid her parents, she said.“I felt like a 500-pound boulder was lifted off my shoulders.”