As they and other workers were leaving the mill on the Augusta Canal at 5 p.m. May 3, their boss met them in the alley and brought them back inside.

''He looked at us, and he said, 'Today was your last day,''' Mrs. Hughes said. ''There were tears in his eyes. He worked there 40 years.''

King Mill's parent company, Spartan International in Spartanburg, S.C., closed six mills May 4 in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina when their assets were seized by the company's primary lender, General Electric Capital Corp. All told, more than 1,200 people lost their jobs. Mrs. Hughes had been there 15 years. Mr. Hughes, 23 years.

There was no warning whatsoever, just shock afterward, Mrs. Hughes said.

''Our mill was going full blast,'' she said. ''We had so many orders we could not handle them. Our supervisor talked about hiring temps. We were working seven days a week, 10 to 12 hours a day, working Saturday and Sunday.''

Suddenly, she and her husband, both 45, were without paychecks, benefits and health insurance, a special blow to Mrs. Hughes who has serious digestive and thyroid problems that must be controlled with costly medicine.

They, along with 304 other King Mill employees, also lost their profit-sharing money, according to former King Mill business manager Stan Littlejohn, a 27-year employee of Spartan International.

Mr. Hughes lost $10,703 in the Employee Stock Option Plan. Mrs. Hughes, $5,221, as of December 1999. They didn't get a report of the totals in 2000, which, in hindsight, should have told them something with the company wasn't right, Mr. Hughes said.

King Mill employees have been told the money in their 401k accounts is secure, but they have had no official communication about it.

THE HUGHESES HAVE been married 19 years. Mr. Hughes, a native Augustan, graduated from Westside High. Mrs. Hughes, who graduated from Glenn Hills High, said she was an Army brat whose family moved to Augusta when she was 9.

Mr. Hughes has a 26-year-old year old son, Kenneth by a previous marriage and two grandchildren Corey, 5, and Drayton, 4, whom Mrs. Hughes claims as her own.

The couple worked the first shift at King Mill, from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m., in the same department. She made $8.01 an hour, he $13.01 and together they grossed about $54,000 a year, she said.

Donna and Ricky Hughes Age: Both 45 Married: 19 years Education: Donna, Glenn Hills High graduate; Ricky, Westside High graduate Positions at King Mill: Donna, clerical worker; Ricky, technician Hourly wages: Donna, $8.01; Ricky, $13.01; combined estimated gross wages, $54,000 a year Weekly unemployment wages: Donna, $227; Ricky, $274 Home: Land O' Lakes subdivision near Trenton, S.C. Family: Son Kenneth, 26, daughter-in-law Mary; two grandsons, Corey, 5, and Drayton, 4

The Hugheses are not the only couple at the mill who suddenly found themselves absent two paychecks and health insurance.

''There were whole families working there, and it's just devastating to them because they're without any income whatsoever also,'' she said.

The workers have since begun receiving unemployment checks, but the maximum benefit in Georgia is $274 a week for 26 weeks. And to receive the maximum, a worker must have earned at least $25,000 a year, said Colis Ivey, the unemployment supervisor for the Georgia Department of Labor in Augusta.

AT FIRST, MRS. HUGHES was confident her husband, who maintained the huge machines that turned out the blankets and bedspreads at King Mill, would immediately find a job.

''He's multitalented with the AKAB's, the automated machines,'' she said May 10 when the Georgia labor department processed the King Mill employees' unemployment claims.

''He did the maintenance,'' she explained. ''He could break them down and rebuild them. He did the trouble-shooting. Basically, he was in charge of all the automated machines in the sewing room and health care area.''

A week later, her confidence began to fade.

''Now that the shock has worn off and you're out there beating the pavement and nobody wants you, your confidence takes a beating,'' she said.

She had awakened that day with a migraine.

''We've gone everywhere,'' she said one afternoon last week at the Huddle House near Edgefield. ''I mean, we've just about exhausted all of our resources.''

''As far as I'm concerned, I don't have that much skill behind me because all I really did was work with the orders, putting the labels on orders with a scanning gun which doesn't take that much computer skill,'' she said.

''But somebody like my husband ... He's really been down lately. He's really been trying to be brave for me because he knows that I'm going to be the one that breaks down the most.''

Every classified ad in the newspaper and labor department Mr. Hughes responded to had been a bust. The person in charge said the company was not hiring or that he didn't have exactly what they were looking for, she said.

''Because he knows how to do four or five things, and he doesn't know how to do this one thing, they don't want him,'' she said. ''The way I feel is when they turn down my husband at these jobs, they don't know what a hard, good worker they've turned away.''

MR. HUGHES WORRIES they will lose their vehicle and that he will have to sell his motorcycle, but Mrs. Hughes is determined not to let that happen.

''I said, 'Uh uh. I'll go and sell some of the antiques I've been collecting before I'll let you sell that bike,''' she said. ''It's something he's always dreamed of and wanted. Why should anything deprive him of it?

''Spartan International took everything from us. The way I feel they stole and robbed from us. Before I lose one blessed little thing that me and him worked so hard over the years to get, I'll file bankruptcy. I won't let no one take anything away from us.''

Last week at the Hughes' mobile home in the Land O' Lakes subdivision near Trenton, Mr. Hughes said he's found out there are not many jobs in Augusta.

''I'm probably going to have to move to get a job,'' he said.

So far, he's had two job interviews.

''The first one, they called me back and said that job has already been filled,'' he said. ''And the second one I'm still waiting to hear from.''

He spends much of his time on the computer sending out resumes and staying in touch with some of his former co-workers. From what he's heard no one is his section has gotten a job yet, he said.

He misses work and the people at the mill. He still gets up at 6 a.m. and ''wanders around the house.''

''To be honest with you, I throughly enjoyed working with the people, and I thoroughly enjoyed my job,'' he said. ''I tried to do the best I could do. Every single person in our department gave 100 percent.''

Mrs. Hughes sleeps late some days because she has had trouble sleeping at night, often waking two or three times a night from worry, especially about how she will afford her medicine. Some of the people she worked with have started cutting back on taking theirs. She said some will take it one day and skip the next to make it last, she said.

Her doctor warned her not to do that and gave her a big bag of samples at her last appointment. He also told her not to miss her regular appointments. He said he would not charge her ''one red nickel'' until she has a job, she said.

She has thought about waitress work, which she has done in the past, and is looking at a job selling insurance. Mr. Hughes sold insurance before he went to work at the mill and could go back to that, he said.

THEY ARE ELIGIBLE for food stamps, but she balks at the idea.

''I don't want to do that,'' she said. ''I've never had to beg for anything. I've never had to ask for a handout. And I don't want to. I don't want a handout. All I want is a hand up.''

On Friday, the couple were at Mr. Hughes' mother's house in Plum Branch, S.C., working in her yard. Mr. Hughes, the only son in his family, helps his mother, Eloise, keep up her house in Plum Branch and a rental house she owns in Augusta.

Eloise Hughes said her son and daughter-in-law are coping the best they can.

''Of course they worry about what has happened because when you don't have a job, you're going to worry,'' she said. ''They really need their jobs.''

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylviaco@augustachronicle.com.