The 49-year-old cocktail waitress had her job guarantee. She said she recognize that others in the hospitality industry didn’t necessarily have that luxury.

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“We just did our best to get by,” Soulia said Tuesday. “Thank God we had health insurance, and now we’re just super excited to get back and get back to doing what we like to do.”

She credited the Culinary union for helping preserve her benefits while she was out of work. A union spokeswoman said the Culinary and Bartenders unions represent 800 workers at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and they negotiated with new ownership so members and their families had health insurance benefits during the entire closure.

Each of the 800 union members received a recall, Culinary Local 226 spokeswoman Bethany Khan said, adding, “We won’t know the exact number of working members until the property is open.”