She goes there to reflect or when she’s stressed.  

“It’s a very calming feeling for me.  Last time I was unemployed I even walked the beach to de-stress and that’s always good.  There’s just something about the water.  It’s always gocod,” she said.

Recently, she goes there to get away, to daydream, to pretend like she is anywhere but her home in Exposition Park.

Ng is a surviving “99-er.” 

Currently enduring a repeat experience with unemployment, she has been without a job for 99 weeks-plus.  Ninety-nine weeks is the cut off for federal unemployment benefits.

Ng has been looking for work.  She worked for 40 years.  She worked to put herself through college. She worked as a single mother who never married.  She paid her taxes every year.

Now she can barely find an interview, and with an empty bank account and a daily struggle to survive, she fears she may become homeless if things don’t change soon.

“You can’t just give up because I will be out on the street and I don’t want that. I’ve never wanted that.  I never thought that I would be in this position at my age after all these years of working.”

Ann has a degree in technical theater from Cal State LA.  When she could not find theater work, she took computer classes and then worked in administrative support.  Her last job was as an office manager for a skin care company.

Then, the company got sold and she was laid off just as the 2008 recession hit.

“I went through all my savings, all my 401K already from the last time I was unemployed,” she said.  “[This time] I went right to the food bank because I knew I couldn’t survive without going."

At 58, she is too young for Social Security, and ineligible for welfare because she doesn’t have young children.  Her daughter, Ariel, lives in the Sacramento area and works as a photojournalist, but the two don’t communicate anymore.

“She asked to live with her father when she turned 12… I’m not really sure why she stopped talking to me,” Ng said.  “That gets kind of difficult, but I’m happy that she has her own life.  She seems to be able to survive and I guess she’s happy.”

The only thing Ng said she has left is the two-story white house with green trim in Exposition Park where she grew up.  She inherited the house when her parents died.

“But it needs so much work that I can’t rent it out.  So there’s that Catch-22,” she said with a wry smile. 

Ng said she’s annoyed by people who don’t understand how she could be unemployed for 99 weeks.

“Having people judge you like you’re worthless, that gets really difficult.  There are times you want to grab them and shake them and say, ‘C’mon, we’re not at home watching TV and eating bon bons, being supported by the system.’”

Ng’s routine is far from that.  She often attends a program with L.A. Fellows at LA Valley College- an organization that teaches resume and interview tips and also helps with job searches.  She said she takes advantage of every networking opportunity she can—an invaluable skill, she has learned. 

“[The LA Fellows program] kind of kept me going, so to speak.  [To] get me up in the morning, get me out of bed, walk out the door, but it’s been really difficult because you know what they say, when things start going south, going wrong – just when you’re starting to catch up – something else goes wrong,” she said. 

But even when things go wrong – when there’s not enough money for gas or the electricity bills go unpaid–Ng said she finds it difficult to ask for help, even when she really needs it.

“You can say I’m a little proud. I’ve never had to beg before and I don’t like it.  There are a lot of times I don’t know what to do, so I just don’t say anything,” she said.

As she talks about the future, she hopes the turning point is near; in fact, she just had a second interview for a job in administrative support for a design company.

“And it’s in the marina.  So that would be nice,” Ng says looking off to the water with a shy grin.  She may be trying to keep herself from getting too excited, but she starts to dream anyway.

“I always wanted to live by the beach,” she said.  Her gaze goes back out to the marina.  She loves the marina.

Reach Paige here.