Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end. -- John Lennon

Imagine: You have a Master's degree in education. You own your own business. You have a wonderful boyfriend and two nearly perfect children, both of whom have graduated from college and are off to a great start.

Then the nightmare starts. Your son is killed, not in an accident, or even quickly. He is tortured and dies a slow agonizing death at the hands of three men who are caught and punished after hours and months in the courtroom. You sell your business lose your boyfriend, and go into a deep depression.

It takes more hours, more months, but you begin to recover. You find a way to truly forgive them and start to make a new life. In your new city, new apartment, you help a man build a new business and it thrives - mostly because of your enormous work ethic and people loving personality.

One day you leave work and receive a text. Your new boss just let you go in the most awful way possible. He no longer needs you and you are too expensive. Arriving home terrified and worried about finding a new job, you open the door and your thirteen year old dog, your deceased son's pet, lies dead on the floor. The depression creeps back.

You donate all your dog's little possessions to the animal shelter and find a new past time. You begin walking dogs for them two hours a day. You make a new friend. She has four legs and a tail that wags like the willows in the wind whenever you appear. You decide to open your own business and begin looking for both a building and equipment.

It is terrifying to think of sinking your life's savings into something so iffy, but you keep going and one day walk into a building whose sign says they are selling some of the equipment you need. No one is there and you wander into a door where you meet a man who might be able to help you. He does! Just not with the equipment you were looking for.

Now you have a new job that pays very handsomely by the day! You are a permanent substitute teacher at a private school for autistic children! Everyone benefits. Your new business starts to take shape. Grants are written. Bathrooms are built. People you've met along the way chip in. One is making you a stained glass sign for your business. Another has years of experience and walks along with you as you find the vendors and other necessary people. Others do all sorts of other helpful things. And the children at the school thrive in your presence.

And best of all, your new little four legged friend goes everywhere with you.

Life is a roller coaster of ups and downs, but the beauty of that is that if you just keep going, even if it's only for the ride, it's more than worth it.