I know a guy who was in the same boat. Had a great 13 year run developing software, and then lost his job a few months after 9-11. Could not get another job like that anyplace.
So he bought a donut shop, and ran that for about 3 yrs.
By that time the IT business had recovered, so he sold the shop and went back to work coding.
Yeah, there’s always a path. Wallowing in crappy dead end jobs for 15 is a long series of bad decisions. Because really, even crappy dead end job DO have a promotional path available to those who don’t suck. Might not get her back into jetting around the world doing meetings, but it can sure get her past $11/hr.