'Sick of it:' Butner correction employee's wife blames both sides in government shutdown

It's not a glamorous job, she says, calling him and other officers "unsung heroes."

For weeks now, her husband has reported to work among loan sharks, tax cheats and Ponzi schemers even though his family is not seeing a dime. He is one of about 800,000 workers affected by the ongoing government shutdown who will miss a second paycheck on Friday.

"Those officers are coming to work, but they don't have checks to put gas in their cars," Brewington said. (She asked WRAL News to use her maiden name to protect her husband.)

After watching news of the shutdown day after day, Brewington could no longer take the stress. She emailed WRAL News: "I'M SICK OF IT!" Correctional officers working "in silence!"

At first, she blamed President Donald Trump. Now she blames both sides of the wall dispute.

"When is it going to end?" she wants to know.

Brewington holds down her own job – she owns a catering business called Kitchen 58 – but it can't put all the food on the table for the couple and their two teenage boys.

"We have a mortgage, water, electric, cellphones. Kids these days can't live without their cellphones," she says.

The family has cut back to the essentials. There's no eating out, no going to the movies and no shopping until the shutdown ends.

"What about our health insurance? Who's gonna pay for that?" she wonders.

"Even if you get back pay, you still have to crawl out of the hole that was dug," Brewington says.

The family has benefited from understanding on the part of some bill collectors.

"Our cellphone company has been very gracious," she says.

But she knows the bills can only wait so long.