Two sisters in Maryland made the most of their situation when they were furloughed and faced with the loss of income because of Trump’s government shutdown and started selling cheesecakes to make ends meet.
While Jaqi Wright and Nikki Howard had hoped they would make some big cheese, and secure enough dollars to keep their household running, they ended up getting big help from talk show host Ellen DeGeneres who surprised the sisters with some major coins for their cakes, WJLA reports.
The always generous DeGeneres talked with the Oxon Hill sisters who said they had been furloughed since Dec. 22 from their jobs at the Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration.
“It’s either cry or get up and do something, so we decided to get up and do something,” Howard said.
“It’s been horrible. Bills are due … my daughter, she’s going back to school soon,” Howard said. “I’ve got to get tuition, make tuition. Right now both of our husbands are unable to work, so it’s been really, really rough.”
Nikki made some tasty cheesecakes during New Year’s and that’s when the lightbulb went off that they had something on their hands.
“My mom said, ‘This is so good, you could sell it,’” Wright recalled. “And I sat up straight, I’m like, ‘Ding, ding, ding!’ We can sell it, sister!’
“Light bulbs went off and the Furlough Sisters and the Furlough Cheesecake came about,” Howard said.
DeGeneres presented the cheesecake sisters with a $20,000 check from Cheerios for one cake!
Now that’s a sweet come up!
Since the episode aired on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the sisters have been overwhelmed with cheesecake orders and the video has been viewed over 300,000 times.