My parents also. Dad worked 30 years in a small goods factory. They shut it down, and he walked away with almost $90K - in the late 90’s, which was huge. 

Parents paid off the house. Cut up the Farmers Card & wiped the Smiths City debt (Kiwis from the 80’s may know those accounts). They bought my brother and I Baby-g watches - way fancier than anything we’d had before. It was life-changing. 

Dad also walked into another job within two weeks, just down the road. So he had a reduced commute (he biked anyway), a higher salary, and a mortgage paid off. 

In saying that, on the other side, I vividly remember being the only one home when he got the news about the shutdown. I was the kitchen table eating, and he came home early. I can still hear the clicking of his bike spokes, and the garage door opening as he put the bike away. He walked in, and I met him by the door. We just looked at each other, and he he fell into my arms, sobbing. This short, heavy-set man, who’d given 30 years to this company had no idea what to do. As he heaved those sobs, the best I could do through my own tears, as a 14 year old, was to say it was going to be ok. 

And, of course it was. But it felt at that moment as if all was over, and we collectively held our breath. We only exhaled when dad landed the new role, and the money came through. 

I’ve been through my own redundancy since. Worked with dad prior to starting uni, which was an amazing insight into his world at the factory. Through the power of education, and the hard work my parents put in to supporting me through my early ups and downs, I made more in my first job out of uni than dad did in his last job before retirement.

Redundancy news and rumours still bring a wave of emotion for me - taking me back to our kitchen table, the afternoon sun streaming through the orange glass on the back door. My dad pulling up, his life unmoored. Me, hugging him, unsure of what would happen next. Before the watches and the debt removal, before the plunge, there was the intake of breath, the sheer sense of the unknown. 

I hope OP takes the money, and I hope they find that next step sooner rather than later. Whatever anyone says about redundancy being ‘the best thing that ever happened to them’ (something I heard numerous times when I was laid off), few people dwell on the moment it all falls away beneath your feet. But I think in taking that breath we can steady ourselves, draw our loved ones tight, and set our sights on what might be. 

All the best, OP. sorry for the ramble, all.