I write romances because I love happy endings. That’s one of the criteria to be a romance novel there has to be a happily ever after. Why do I like this so much? Well, I’ve always been an optimistic person, but at my day job I’m a divorce attorney. Yep. Not many happy endings in my line of work, rather I see on a daily basis love that once existed turn to bitterness and even hate. It’s sad and wrong. So I escape and write romances where happy endings do exist. Where people are loving and not hateful.

Sometimes in the real world we can lose sight of that. Especially with some of the things that have happened in our country and the world in recent days. We could start believing that there is more bad than good, more sadness than happiness. I watched in horror as the Orlando shootings rocked our country. But then, a week later I had the privilege to be an adult leader for a mission trip to San Francisco with an amazing group of 21 high school aged kids. These kids gave up 10 days of their summer vacation to travel long hours to work with the homeless population in a big city. I was overcome with pride each and every day as I watched their compassion, caring, and hard work. They were truly making our country a better place by their actions.

Then this week, once again, horror unfolded in our country. This time with the seemingly unnecessary shootings of two black men by police and then the unthinkable massacre of police officers in Dallas. What is our world coming to? I asked. So much tragedy and killing. Where were the good people? Then I got my answer once again. My daughter is an ER doctor at Parkland hospital in Dallas. These amazing doctors were tasked with helping save slain police officers, many of whom were their personal friends and colleagues. Some who  didn’t make it. But then in the midst of tragedy, good people once again showed up. On Friday their ER was inundated by the good people of the Dallas area, total strangers bringing food-packages of candy, cookies, tacos, donuts, pizza, all to express their support and gratitude. They even received 200 sandwiches from the Orlando hospital who had dealt with their own shooting a few weeks earlier.

There’s good in this world if we look for it. Good people will prevail over evil ones. And I’ll always believe in happy endings.