BOSTON -- A Natick man is facing unemployment because his wife has cancer.Accountant Carl Sorabella got a raise in November for a job well done, but despite more than 13 years with his company, he was recently laid off after his wife's life-altering diagnosis.
got a call saying I had 55 nodules in my lungs. I collapsed. I absolutely collapsed, because I thought, 'That's it -- lung cancer. I'm dead,'" Kathy Sorabella said.Being told they had only months left together, Kathy and her husband, Carl, began life's worst roller coaster."I've known Kathy longer than I've known my mother. My mother died when I was 18, and we've been married for 23 years. She's my life," Carl Sorabella said.With Kathy's health fragile, Carl knew he'd need time to be at her treatments and tests. When he shared the news with his boss, his employment of nearly 14 years was terminated."She said, 'It's business. I'm running a company here, and I need to make sure the department runs.' And I argued that I would make sure the company runs," Carl Sorabella said.He said he offered to work nights and weekends, but his boss said no."And I'm like, 'You just can't do that. I mean, she's on disability. We have no income now. And unemployment -- they cap you at $625 a week," Carl Sorabella said."Fourteen years with the company and they just let him go like that, and that's what terrified me," Kathy Sorabella said.Carl's employer, Haynes real estate management company in Wellesley is a small office employing fewer than 50 people, so neither state nor federal employment laws apply. There is little Carl can do about his situation -- other than collect unemployment."I just don't know how to get my head around something like this," he said."And now he's on unemployment, and I'm on disability, and we don't know how our bills are going to be paid. But we keep telling each other as long as we love each other -- it doesn't matter," Kathy Sorabella said.There is a bit of good news -- Kathy's been told her cancer has not spread as far as initially believed, and her prognosis is now years instead of months.
got a call saying I had 55 nodules in my lungs. I collapsed. I absolutely collapsed, because I thought, 'That's it -- lung cancer. I'm dead,'" Kathy Sorabella said.Being told they had only months left together, Kathy and her husband, Carl, began life's worst roller coaster."I've known Kathy longer than I've known my mother. My mother died when I was 18, and we've been married for 23 years. She's my life," Carl Sorabella said.With Kathy's health fragile, Carl knew he'd need time to be at her treatments and tests. When he shared the news with his boss, his employment of nearly 14 years was terminated."She said, 'It's business. I'm running a company here, and I need to make sure the department runs.' And I argued that I would make sure the company runs," Carl Sorabella said.He said he offered to work nights and weekends, but his boss said no."And I'm like, 'You just can't do that. I mean, she's on disability. We have no income now. And unemployment -- they cap you at $625 a week," Carl Sorabella said."Fourteen years with the company and they just let him go like that, and that's what terrified me," Kathy Sorabella said.Carl's employer, Haynes real estate management company in Wellesley is a small office employing fewer than 50 people, so neither state nor federal employment laws apply. There is little Carl can do about his situation -- other than collect unemployment."I just don't know how to get my head around something like this," he said."And now he's on unemployment, and I'm on disability, and we don't know how our bills are going to be paid. But we keep telling each other as long as we love each other -- it doesn't matter," Kathy Sorabella said.There is a bit of good news -- Kathy's been told her cancer has not spread as far as initially believed, and her prognosis is now years instead of months.
