Article November 24, 2003 ISSUE

A story of gratitude

I lost everything—and gained much more

By Chere Canaris

Less than a year ago I was living in my $2.5 million home in the Silicon Valley of California. I was driving one of my two Mercedes Benzes—either my classic 1964 model or the big 300 SL. Or I could have been going to my top-floor office in the building that I owned—with a panoramic view of the city of San Jose. And some years ago, I might even have been driving to the airport to pilot my own four-seater Cessna 182.

Today, I don't have those things anymore. I lost them all—and gained something better. You'll now find me at home in a 900-square-foot cottage. There was a time when I would have driven right past where I now live and thought of the place as being in "reduced" circumstances. After all, this little house doesn't sit on a hill with a view of the San Francisco Bay. There's no swimming pool on an acre of landscoped grounds, not even a golf course within shouting distance—which were all amenities of my previous home.

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