遺愿的力量

By all appearances， Barbara Bruce Ross was living the life many women dream of. She was a financial rock star， working on Wall Street and bringing in a six-figure salary. Shed leave the office when the market closed at 4 p.m.， make a stop at 1）Neiman Marcus and maybe take a yoga class—then shed make her way home to her very successful husband and an apartment overlooking Manhattan.

But success and happiness dont always travel in pairs—that seemingly perfect life was 2）crumbling from the inside. With her marriage on shaky ground， Barbara found herself spending more and more time in the safest place she could find： at her aging grandmothers side， trying to figure out what she was missing in her life.

“My grandmother saw how unhappy I was，”Barbara recalled. “I was trying to 3）numb my pain by hanging out in New York Citys party scene， and Gram didnt like that. She said， ‘Maybe you need something else to do. And then she pulled out two boxes of notebooks filled with page after page of elegant script and told me to take them home.”

顯然，芭芭拉·布魯斯·羅斯過著許多女人夢寐以求的生活。她是金融界的一顆“搖滾巨星”，在華爾街工作，拿著六位數(shù)的薪資。股市下午4點收市，她便可以離開辦公室，在內(nèi)曼·馬庫斯百貨里逗留一會兒，或是去上節(jié)瑜伽課——然后回家，回到她成功的丈夫身邊，回到那間可以俯瞰曼哈頓的公寓里。

但成功與幸福并不總是如影隨形——那看似完美的生活正從內(nèi)部分崩離析。隨著婚姻的搖搖欲墜，芭芭拉發(fā)現(xiàn)自己花上越來越多的時間呆在她能找到的最安全的地方：在她年邁的祖母身邊，并試圖理清她的生活里到底錯失了什么。

“我的祖母看到了我有多不開心，”芭芭拉回憶到?！拔页Ａ鬟B于紐約的各種瘋狂派對，試圖以此麻痹自己的痛苦，但祖母并不贊同。她說：‘也許你需要做點其它的。然后，她拖出兩箱筆記本，那筆記本里一頁接一頁地滿載著優(yōu)雅的手跡，祖母讓我把這些筆記本帶回家?！?/p>

The notebooks were filled with formulas for lotions and creams that her grandmother had begun creating at home in the 1960s. The ingredients for each of these 4）therapeutic elixirs had come from her garden—a 5）floral playground where Barbaras fondest childhood memories lived.

“I got a lot of bee stings，” Barbara said with a smile， “but even those are fond memories. My grandmother would always have some sort of 6）balm to 7）soothe over the pain—and she would sing these sweet lullabies as she lovingly applied them. ”

For her grandmother—Alice Bruce， these lotions would eventually become her own restorative cure. At the age of 49， when her husband—Barbaras grandfather—passed away unexpectedly， Alice poured herself into her home remedies， eventually opening a store in Greenwich， Connecticut， where she sold her 8）fragrant creams. Decades passed， Alice grew ill and the store would ultimately shut down.

But the formulas of her 9）home-grown beauty lotions would survive—written in those notebooks that she had given to Barbara. Just as she had done so many years before， 10）gram was offering a solution to relieve Barbaras pain.

筆記上記滿了各種乳液和面霜的配方，那些都是上世紀(jì)60年代芭芭拉的祖母在家中開始自創(chuàng)的。每種藥效乳霜的配料都來自于她的花園——一個植滿花草的樂園，那里有著芭芭拉最喜歡的童年記憶。

“我老被蜜蜂蜇傷，”芭芭拉笑著說，“但即便如此那些也是美好的回憶。我的祖母總會用某些藥膏來平緩我的疼痛——當(dāng)她一邊親昵地為我敷藥時，還一邊哼唱著那些優(yōu)美的搖籃曲?！?/p>

對于她的祖母——愛麗絲·布魯斯來說，這些乳液最終變成了她自己的復(fù)元靈藥。在她49歲時，她的丈夫——芭芭拉的祖父——意外身亡，愛麗絲全身心投入到她的自制膏藥事業(yè)中，最終在康涅狄格州的格林威治開了一家店，在那兒賣她的芳香面霜。幾十年過去了，愛麗絲病了，店最終也關(guān)門了。

但她自創(chuàng)的美容乳液配方留了下來——寫在那些她交給芭芭拉的筆記本里。正如多年前她所做過的那樣，祖母為減輕芭芭拉的苦楚給出了一個解決方法。

“I thought she was crazy，”Barbara said with a 11）chuckle. “I told her， ‘Im not a chemist. Im a financial person. I buy my creams. I get my face done by someone. Still， I took the boxes home out of respect for my grandmother and 12）stashed them in the corner—until one night， when I just couldnt ignore them anymore.

“I started going through them and thought where am I going to get pig fat，” she said laughing. “The formulas were a little 13）antiquated. Thats when I started Googling and researching and talking with chemists.”

Barbara kept her day job， but hired a chemist who was based on the west coast. The time difference between their cities would prove to be a 14）godsend， as it gave Barbara three extra hours to work on her grandmothers formulas after the markets closed.

“I was so excited because I knew Gram was going to get to see her formulas reworked. What a great gift that would be！”

Once Barbara began ordering ingredients and experimenting in her kitchen， she was 15）hooked. She began with bar soaps and， before she knew it， her home was filled with hundreds and hundreds of samples. The fragrances that were so familiar to her as a child—16）gardenia， 17）peony， 18）hydrangea and roses—were surrounding her once again， and the slow 19）tranquil process of making each batch seemed to bathe her soul.

“我覺得她瘋了，”芭芭拉輕聲地笑著說。“我告訴她，‘我不是個化學(xué)家。我是搞金融的，我平常自己買面霜，都是請別人給我做美容的。但出于對祖母的尊敬，我還是把箱子帶回了家，藏在了犄角旮旯——直到某天晚上，我再也不能無視它們的存在了。

“我開始仔細(xì)翻看那些筆記，并想著我怎么就變得像豬那么胖了，”她笑著說?！芭浞接幸恍╆惻f。那時我開始上網(wǎng)搜索，研究，和化學(xué)家們交流?！?/p>

芭芭拉白天堅持工作，但是雇請了住在西海岸的一位化學(xué)家。他倆城市間的時差簡直就是上帝的恩賜，因為時差讓芭芭拉在股市收市后總有額外的三個小時來研究她祖母的配方。

“我特別興奮，因為我知道祖母將要看到她的配方再次發(fā)揮效力了。這是多棒的一份禮物啊！”

芭芭拉一開始在她的廚房里做成分配置和實驗，她就入迷了。她從皂條著手，不知不覺，家里已經(jīng)堆滿成千上萬的樣品了。在兒時，那芳香對她來說是那么熟悉——梔子花、牡丹、繡球花和玫瑰——又再一次將她環(huán)繞，而且制作每一批皂條的緩慢而恬靜的過程，似乎在滌清她的靈魂。

“Once I got the bar soaps down，” she continued， “I started experimenting with lotions and liquid soaps. I thought， if I could make those， I could create the perfect basket for my grandmother.”

But before Barbara could deliver the basket， Alice passed away.

“Something kept 20）nudging me along. Maybe was my grandmother—I dont know. But I just couldnt stop.”

Before she knew it， Barbara was walking the floor of the Health and Beauty Show at New Yorks Javits Convention Center， taking a 21）crash course in beauty business. Having mastered soap-making， she now wanted to learn the secret to creating lotions—never realizing that， unlike soaps， lotions are a far more complicated process， and regulated by the 22）FDA. She felt completely overwhelmed.

“當(dāng)我懂得如何制作皂條之后，”她繼續(xù)道，“我便開始試著制作乳液和皂液。我盤算著，如果那些我都能做的話，我就能為我的祖母做上最好的一籃。”

但是還沒等到芭芭拉做出那籃完美皂品，愛麗絲就去世了。

“冥冥中有什么在推著我前進(jìn)。也許是我祖母——我不曉得。反正我是停不下來了。”

以迅雷不及掩耳之勢，芭芭拉走進(jìn)了紐約賈維茨會展中心的保健美容展，參加一個美容業(yè)的速成班。掌握了如何制皂后，芭芭拉如今想學(xué)習(xí)制造乳液的秘方——她未意識到，與制皂不同的是，制造乳液是更為復(fù)雜的過程，更受食品及藥物管理局的監(jiān)管。她全然不知所措了。

“I went to the bathroom and locked myself in a stall and cried，” she remembered. “All these people knew more than I did. I hadnt been in a position like that for 15 years.”

But even in her despair， she kept hearing her grandmothers voice saying， Barbara， you dont have to be a chemist， youre a businesswoman. And so she moved forward—naming her company B. Witching Bath Co.， an ode to her family name and the magic lotions that her grandmother had created.

“我把自己鎖在洗手間的一個格擋里，放聲大哭?！彼貞浀?。“那些人懂的都比我多。我有十五年沒這么彷徨過了?！?/p>

但即使在絕望中，她也一直聽到她祖母的聲音說著：“芭芭拉，你不一定得當(dāng)個化學(xué)家，你是名商業(yè)女性。”所以她篳路藍(lán)褸——給公司取名為B·魔力浴品公司，以此紀(jì)念家族姓氏及其祖母首創(chuàng)的神奇乳液。

Soon Barbara was selling more than 50 varieties of bar soaps online， and opening a small store in 23）Ridgewood， New Jersey， which her sister and cousins would run. She continued working on Wall Street by day—and researching the right formulas for lotions and creams at night—stocking away the money she needed to fund her grandmothers dying wish.

Finally， at the age of 40， Barbara was ready to begin manufacturing full-time. Thats when she announced that she was walking away from Wall Street.

With manufacturing plants in Seattle and Ohio， today Barbara is producing more than 200 products. Shes opened a corporate office and second store in Hawthorne， New Jersey， and her lotions， creams， liquid soaps， 24）bubble baths and candles are being sold in more than 700 boutiques nationwide.

Finally， success and happiness have arrived together—both in business and in Barbaras personal life. Shes now joyfully remarried and teaching her four-year-old daughter， Sophie， all the lessons her grandmother shared with her—the most important being， how to find happiness in simple things.

“Once again，” Barbara said， “she found a way to soothe even the worst stings. ”

不久后，芭芭拉就在線上出售五十多個品種的皂條了，并在新澤西的里奇伍德開了一家小店，由她的姐姐和表親們經(jīng)營。她白天仍在華爾街工作——夜里就研究乳液和面霜的正確配方——積攢所需的錢來投資她祖母的遺愿。

終于，在40歲時，芭芭拉準(zhǔn)備開始全職從事制造業(yè)。也就在那時她宣布她要離開華爾街。

坐擁西雅圖和俄亥俄州的制造工廠，如今芭芭拉生產(chǎn)出了200余種產(chǎn)品。在新澤西的霍桑，她建立了公司總部并開了第二家分店，她的乳液、面霜、液體皂、泡沫浴及蠟燭在全國700余家精品店內(nèi)售賣。

最終，成功與幸福雙雙蒞臨——無論是生意還是芭芭拉的私生活都是如此。如今她幸福地再婚了，并將其祖母與之分享的所有經(jīng)驗教訓(xùn)授予她四歲的女兒索菲——最重要的一點就是：如何從簡單的事情中尋找幸福。

“再一次，”芭芭拉說道，“她發(fā)現(xiàn)了緩解劇痛的靈藥?！?img src="https://cimg.fx361.com/images/2018/07/08/qkimagesfkyyfkyy201303fkyy20130315-5-l.jpg"/>