OCEANSIDE, N.Y. (WCBS 880) — The pandemic turned life upside down for many and one 90-year-old Long Island woman who lost her job during the pandemic is worried she won't get the chance to work again.
Barbara Levine will be turning 91 later this year and she tells WCBS 880's Sophia Hall that she lived a full life before the pandemic hit.
"I used to go to concerts all the time in Long Beach, in the Oceanside library they used to have an adult day camp in the summer," Levine said. "I miss everything the way it was."
Levine also worked five days a week at an insurance agency, where she had been employed for 22 years.
When the pandemic hit, she lost her job and had to go on unemployment.
She said it took hundreds of phone calls to the Labor Department to finally start receiving unemployment checks.
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"It's terrible because they never started it. It took like three, four months to get that started," Levine said. "They didn't have enough help to get the thing going so when I was let go in March I think sometime in June that I started getting unemployment."
She describes the pandemic as a prison for her and fears she'll never work again.
"Who's going to hire a 90-and-a-half-year-old woman? It's not going to be easy, especially when they can't hire people who are half my age," Levine said. "I miss getting up. It was a routine. I miss seeing people. I miss being in the world."
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Levine said if there was a job opportunity, she would "definitely" take it.
Levine is a widow. She has three children, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
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