In the course of living

I have the sweetest neighbor.  I met her one day when her dog charged down the hall barking at me and nearly scared me to death.  His name was Eddy and he was an eleven year old miniature collie.  Eddy and I were on a first name basis after that.We both limped around. We both loved to eat. And we both loved Mischa, his owner.

She was a Millikin University graduate with a Masters in English who was setting up two coffee shops for a local man.  She had been a teacher, but her son was murdered in a grisly accident a few years ago and she was trying to make a new start working sixty hour weeks  for this guy until everything was running smoothly.  Yesterday he let her go -- by text -- simply saying, "Money is tight, I have to let you go." There was no warning, but he let another man go who had been doing all his computer work too, thank goodness it was just before the guy quit his other job.

She was shocked, but she's not one to give up easily.  She came home, opened her door, and Eddy wasn't there to meet her.  He appeared to be sleeping soundly on his little bed by the other door, but Eddy had gone to join her son and Mischa had to take him up to her father's farm to bury him.

She's going to visit her sister, a vet near LA, for a couple of weeks. There's a little guest cottage by the sea there where she can recoup a bit.  Then she's coming back here, she told me through her tears, and looking harder for a place to start her own coffee shop.  Maybe she will even take over one of the ones she set up (if he's really so broke he's declaring bankruptcy and not lying.) And she has bigger plans. Her shop will be family friendly, maybe have a program for middle school children to come to after school.

I know she'll do whatever she needs to.  Mischa is one of those indomitably cheerful people who won't stay down, an inspiration to me and anyone else who knows her.