I had gotten my divorce and after three horrible years, I met a wonderful man. He came onboard with my successful business and all was good for a while.

One month, business just dried up and one disaster after another happened – we got jobs that made us miserable and didn’t pay the bills, I got high blood pressure and wasn’t allowed to work, and my partner lost his job. We were in dire straits and rapidly spiraling into a pit of despair!

We got a call one morning from my partner’s brother to tell us that his step father (whom he loved as his father) had died in a motorbike accident while on holidays in Italy. His mother was critical in an Italian hospital. How weird, I spoke Italian and knew that part of Italy like the back of my hand. We left to be at her side; we had to move to the UK to look after her and I had to leave my daughter in Ireland with her father. I was in such a bad place. We had no money, loans that needed to be re-paid, cars that were re-possessed, and we had lost a wonderful man.

My daughter bought me The Secret for Christmas that year, and while she was over on holidays we read it together. It just woke me up!! I wrote on the inside cover that by the end of January 2010 I was going to move to Spain, and by the 30th of July 2010 (my 40th birthday), I would have opened my own shop!

On the 2nd of February we arrived in Spain in a car we paid £400 for! I got a job a few weeks later and my partner got work from my job in property. My daughter moved to Spain to be with me as I could now support her. By the 30th of July I had left the job and signed the lease for my shop on July 30th, and I opened on 13th of August 2010!! My store broke even after seven months, and it’s now in profit and we are set to become a franchise! We are moving to a larger unit as we are expanding our product range. I have a regular spot on TV here from which my store gets great business! We are doing so well. I’m going to buy a Jeep Wrangler which I have always wanted and give my poor £400 car who we fondly named Lucy, a rest. I will keep her and one day restore her to her glory and keep her as a reminder of our new start, along with my copy of The Secret, which has written on the inside cover, “The start of my dreams.” Thank you Rhonda for sharing this with the world. x