CHARLOTTE, N.C. — First, she was furloughed, then she was laid off -- but a Charlotte woman said with her back against the wall, the pandemic helped her find her true passion.
With the unemployment rate at a record high because of COVID-19 and with many still struggling, the numbers are improving slightly in Charlotte where jobs grew by 3.5%. The national average is lower at just 2.3%. Some in Charlotte have found work again, in ways they never expected.
Lauren Bryant spent the last sixteen years working as a makeup artist until last March when the pandemic hit.
"I was furloughed for eight weeks when I realized I’ve gotta do something or I’m gonna go stir crazy," Bryant said. "It turned into a full-time thing totally un-intentional not planned but it has been the biggest blessing."
She’s still not sure why she started working with flowers.
"This was just totally a whim," she said. "I had this idea to start creating flower arrangements and I had never created a flower arrangement in my life."
With plenty of time on her hands, she made the arrangements then posted them for sale on Facebook, and friends and family quickly gobbled them up.
"Two weeks later I got notified that my position had been cut and at that point, I was like I guess I am going to continue to make flower arrangements," she said.
She’d always dreamed of more time with her son and now she has it. Both she and her husband are working from home and Bryant said she’s never been happier.
"I hope that it is a testimony to people when they are in the lowest of lows there is always something good coming no matter how bad things may seem there’s a silver lining you may not have seen it yet but it’s coming," she said.