... While vacillating over my decision I got a letter of termination from my employer. One of my friends who is an attorney said, "They can't terminate you if you're on disability." And he fought for me as I was too weak to fight for myself. He was able to get me three months' salary as compensation. "Wow! Three months' salary, I could do quite a lot with that". I had also forgotten that I had my jewelry insured and itemized. Who did that? None of the other victims of violent crime had insured any of their jewelry, from their very expensive Van Clef and Arpels diamond necklaces to their Cartier watches, to their 15 and 20 carat diamond rings, nobody had anything insured. Little me had insured my jewelry independently for up to $30,000.00, for which a check came in the mail. I now had $60,000.00, enough money to buy a little house to start Tranquility!

I found a little house for sale that I thought would be perfect but was sure they wouldn't accept my offer. I put in a ridiculous low offer and they actually accepted it! I was able to get a loan for the difference and I spend the next year fixing it up. Every week I would go to Ross, Marshall's, and TJ Maxx, and buy little bits of linen and china and towels. The disability money helped me buy those things as well as pay my car payment and insurance. Fortunately, at that point, my husband really took care of all the other major financial burdens.

Almost a year after the robbery, I seem to have a renewed strength. I went to see everybody I knew, every doctor, every hospital, and told them that I was on a mission. Caroline's on a mission. People were hesitant and probably thought I had gone mad but really I had got it right. I was going to live. I was unencumbered. I was not driven by money but by the passion to live my life every day to the fullest. The robbery served as a wake up call. It had shown me how fragile life is. And now that I had seen the light I wanted to help everyone else. The light, the light. The house that I had found for Tranquility had the most amazing light shining through the window. I called it my healing light. And every morning, I would get up and go to this house, and sit by the light and decide what I was going to do that day. There was no plan, there was no schedule, and there was no time table, just the light. And the light source fills me up, fills up my cup with so much energy that I knew I had to give back to society.

When I went out to the doctors and explained my theories of how I would take care of people, they thought I had gone mad. Patients don't care about chicken soup and love. They just need a place to get well. And I said, "No, you need healing, you need touch, you need love, you need food, you need everything that I didn't have during the period of a year after my terrible ordeal." I felt malnourished, I felt unloved, I felt scared, I felt lonely and I never wanted to go there again, nor did I want anybody to feel that way.

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