Oh, Thank Goodness : A Grasp at Happiness and Starting Over

In 1989, the Earth trembled, skies poured, killer winds howled, tankers spilled and revolutions swept the globe. In Los Angeles, gang violence claimed yet more victims and traffic seemed to grow ever worse. Still, amid the tide of oft-tragic happenings, small rays of hope keep shining through. Here are a few of many stories worth sharing on a day of feasting, family and friends. They’re enough to remind that it’s still worth saying: “Oh, Thank Goodness.”

They are native Angelenos, Westsiders who had finally had it with Los Angeles. The traffic, the smog, the crime. They wanted out in the worst way.

They thought long and hard about how to improve the quality of their lives. Mike Paisley, 40, even sold his business, a summer and day camp in West Los Angeles, so he’d have time to write and think about what would make him and his wife truly happy. Suzanne Paisley, 32, kept working as a self-employed management consultant.

They decided owning and operating a bed and breakfast inn, preferably in a quiet mountain hamlet, would fulfill many of their dreams. So for nearly two years, their search for the perfect B & B consumed their vacations. Finally, while visiting Los Alamos, N.M., last May 18, their fourth anniversary, they found a six-bedroom B & B up for sale.

But they had only about $1,000 in savings and had never owned their own home. Still, they “decided to just go for it and see what we could scrounge up, borrow from friends and get in loans,” says Mike, adding that everyone they then asked said no.

The couple proceeded on, as if, somehow, they were going to get the place.

Suzanne told a client she had worked for full time that she soon would be leaving for Los Alamos; hearing that, another consultant offered her a sizable sum for the name of her business (“The Business Doctor”) and rights to reproduce her brochure.

It was enough for a down payment. Only trouble was, the B & B’s seller then decided to hold on to the place until next summer.

Depressed, the Paisleys recall sitting on the beach at Playa del Rey and deciding, against all logic, to move to Los Alamos anyway.

“We said, ‘If we don’t have a house, we’ll find one. If we have to, we’ll get an apartment. Somehow, we’ll have faith it will work out,’ ” Suzanne says. “The very next day, the owner called to say whenever you want to move in, you can move in.”

Then, on the day closing papers were signed, a friend of Suzanne’s offered a gift--one even larger than the sum of the down payment. The gift, a thank-you for Suzanne’s past kindness, enabled the couple to have money for moving, closing costs, start-up expenses and more.

The Paisleys moved into the Orange Street Bed and Breakfast Inn at the beginning of October, and, says Mike, got a booking the second day they were there. Within a week, the place was booked solid and business has been good ever since.

“There was a period when this seemed like a miracle and it was too hard to believe,” recalls Suzanne. “It almost became scary, like this is too good to be true. The beauty is that it just got better and better.”