遗愿的力量

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.”

显然，芭芭拉·布鲁斯·罗斯过着许多女人梦寐以求的生活。她是金融界的一颗“摇滚巨星”，在华尔街工作，拿着六位数的薪资。股市下午4点收市，她便可以离开办公室，在内曼·马库斯百货里逗留一会儿，或是去上节瑜伽课——然后回家，回到她成功的丈夫身边，回到那间可以俯瞰曼哈顿的公寓里。

但成功与幸福并不总是如影随形——那看似完美的生活正从内部分崩离析。随着婚姻的摇摇欲坠，芭芭拉发现自己花上越来越多的时间呆在她能找到的最安全的地方：在她年迈的祖母身边，并试图理清她的生活里到底错失了什么。

“我的祖母看到了我有多不开心，”芭芭拉回忆到。“我常流连于纽约的各种疯狂派对，试图以此麻痹自己的痛苦，但祖母并不赞同。她说：‘也许你需要做点其它的。然后，她拖出两箱笔记本，那笔记本里一页接一页地满载着优雅的手迹，祖母让我把这些笔记本带回家。”

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.

笔记上记满了各种乳液和面霜的配方，那些都是上世纪60年代芭芭拉的祖母在家中开始自创的。每种药效乳霜的配料都来自于她的花园——一个植满花草的乐园，那里有着芭芭拉最喜欢的童年记忆。

“我老被蜜蜂蜇伤，”芭芭拉笑着说，“但即便如此那些也是美好的回忆。我的祖母总会用某些药膏来平缓我的疼痛——当她一边亲昵地为我敷药时，还一边哼唱着那些优美的摇篮曲。”

对于她的祖母——爱丽丝·布鲁斯来说，这些乳液最终变成了她自己的复元灵药。在她49岁时，她的丈夫——芭芭拉的祖父——意外身亡，爱丽丝全身心投入到她的自制膏药事业中，最终在康涅狄格州的格林威治开了一家店，在那儿卖她的芳香面霜。几十年过去了，爱丽丝病了，店最终也关门了。

但她自创的美容乳液配方留了下来——写在那些她交给芭芭拉的笔记本里。正如多年前她所做过的那样，祖母为减轻芭芭拉的苦楚给出了一个解决方法。

“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.

“我觉得她疯了，”芭芭拉轻声地笑着说。“我告诉她，‘我不是个化学家。我是搞金融的，我平常自己买面霜，都是请别人给我做美容的。但出于对祖母的尊敬，我还是把箱子带回了家，藏在了犄角旮旯——直到某天晚上，我再也不能无视它们的存在了。

“我开始仔细翻看那些笔记，并想着我怎么就变得像猪那么胖了，”她笑着说。“配方有一些陈旧。那时我开始上网搜索，研究，和化学家们交流。”

芭芭拉白天坚持工作，但是雇请了住在西海岸的一位化学家。他俩城市间的时差简直就是上帝的恩赐，因为时差让芭芭拉在股市收市后总有额外的三个小时来研究她祖母的配方。

“我特别兴奋，因为我知道祖母将要看到她的配方再次发挥效力了。这是多棒的一份礼物啊！”

芭芭拉一开始在她的厨房里做成分配置和实验，她就入迷了。她从皂条着手，不知不觉，家里已经堆满成千上万的样品了。在儿时，那芳香对她来说是那么熟悉——栀子花、牡丹、绣球花和玫瑰——又再一次将她环绕，而且制作每一批皂条的缓慢而恬静的过程，似乎在涤清她的灵魂。

“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.

“当我懂得如何制作皂条之后，”她继续道，“我便开始试着制作乳液和皂液。我盘算着，如果那些我都能做的话，我就能为我的祖母做上最好的一篮。”

但是还没等到芭芭拉做出那篮完美皂品，爱丽丝就去世了。

“冥冥中有什么在推着我前进。也许是我祖母——我不晓得。反正我是停不下来了。”

以迅雷不及掩耳之势，芭芭拉走进了纽约贾维茨会展中心的保健美容展，参加一个美容业的速成班。掌握了如何制皂后，芭芭拉如今想学习制造乳液的秘方——她未意识到，与制皂不同的是，制造乳液是更为复杂的过程，更受食品及药物管理局的监管。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.

“我把自己锁在洗手间的一个格挡里，放声大哭。”她回忆道。“那些人懂的都比我多。我有十五年没这么彷徨过了。”

但即使在绝望中，她也一直听到她祖母的声音说着：“芭芭拉，你不一定得当个化学家，你是名商业女性。”所以她筚路蓝褛——给公司取名为B·魔力浴品公司，以此纪念家族姓氏及其祖母首创的神奇乳液。

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，芭芭拉就在线上出售五十多个品种的皂条了，并在新泽西的里奇伍德开了一家小店，由她的姐姐和表亲们经营。她白天仍在华尔街工作——夜里就研究乳液和面霜的正确配方——积攒所需的钱来投资她祖母的遗愿。

终于，在40岁时，芭芭拉准备开始全职从事制造业。也就在那时她宣布她要离开华尔街。

坐拥西雅图和俄亥俄州的制造工厂，如今芭芭拉生产出了200余种产品。在新泽西的霍桑，她建立了公司总部并开了第二家分店，她的乳液、面霜、液体皂、泡沫浴及蜡烛在全国700余家精品店内售卖。

最终，成功与幸福双双莅临——无论是生意还是芭芭拉的私生活都是如此。如今她幸福地再婚了，并将其祖母与之分享的所有经验教训授予她四岁的女儿索菲——最重要的一点就是：如何从简单的事情中寻找幸福。

“再一次，”芭芭拉说道，“她发现了缓解剧痛的灵药。”