Sometimes the healing of our hurts starts only when we find another song to sing. Take the story of Helen, for instance. She had her sights set on a law degree from Ohio Wesleyan College. But then the flu epidemic of 1918 hit, taking her father as a victim. Suddenly everything had changed. Helen could not go to college; she had to get a job to support her mother.

For the next ten years, Helen worked at an electrical utility; a simple, repetitive cog in the company machine. Just when she thought she was destined to remain lonely and unmarried, young Franklin Rice stepped in. He was a dashing entrepreneur, an up- and-coming banker. When they married in 1928, Helen’s future was bright with promise.

A year later, though, the stock market crashed, and Franklin’s financial world fell apart. He cou…