Mom offers $500 to get daughter a job

• Tweet

RIVERSIDE, Calif., March 4 (UPI) -- A California mother spent Friday afternoon on the side of a road with a sign promising $500 to someone who could help her daughter land a job.

Linda Smith, 61, said her daughter, Lisa, has been looking for work for months to no avail. After the younger Smith spent years caring for her mother following a debilitating car crash, Linda Smith said the sign -- and the money -- was the least she could do to help.

The elder Smith was struck by a drunk driver on her way to work in 1996 and the force of the impact left her with what doctors termed a mild case of dementia. She no longer could recall dates, places and had trouble with her motor skills, making her unable to work.

The younger Smith returned to California from a stint in South Korea as a commercial model to care for her ailing mother. The pair got by on what money the younger Smith could earn part time, the elder Smith's disability and a federal stipend the daughter was granted for serving as her mother's caregiver.

Recently, The Riverside Press-Enterprise said the pair had a good news-bad news scenario when doctors said Linda Smith had recovered enough that she could live on her own. Improved health was a blessing, the pair said, but it also meant Lisa Smith lost the stipend for caring for her mother.

That led to months of looking for work.

"I'm trying to keep the faith that it's only temporary," Lisa Smith said.

And in turn, Linda Smith's roadside sign.

She said most passersby were courteous and offered to help. Some took resumes.

Others, though, said they're in much the same boat.

"I've heard that a few times today," she said.