The Road Ahead
Toronto Sun
By Joanne Richard

The road ahead looks bright and inviting for birth mom LuAn Mitchell Halter and daughter Jaki Laga who recently reunited after 27 years apart, but for Mitchell Halter, her life journey has been ferociously turbulent and heartbreaking at times.

Mitchell Halter's rags to riches story, and one she's written about in her autobiography Paper Doll, is of triumph over tragedy -- a poor, pregnant 16-year-old in rural Saskatchewan who runs away because "teenage pregnancy was worse than being an axe murderer back then. I was told I had ruined my life."

She reluctantly agreed to give up Jaki for adoption while juggling three jobs trying to make ends meet. "It was hell; I just wanted to kill myself," but she resolved to survive, thrive and hold on to her dreams.

She went on to transform herself after pregnancy, winning beauty pageants and attaining an education; and on to transform a flailing major corporation and, ultimately, the female entrepreneurial landscape in Canada -- all before turning 40.

She rescued Mitchell's Gourmet Foods, a meat-packing empire, from financial ruin after her ailing husband's death in 1998. Widowed, flat broke and exhausted after years of nursing her chronically ill business mogul husband, Fred Mitchell, she assumed the helm of the bankrupt company acquired in a bitter family dispute on her husband's side. She had little business experience and three small children to raise.

The overwhelming obstacles bowed her, but did not break her. She grieved, grappled, got strong and got on with building a multimillion dollar business. She ran it on her own for five years before selling in 2003.

Today, the fearless female entrepreneur has left the boardroom, remarried and travels the world on the public-speaking circuit, motivating others to take charge and find the good in everything.

And mother and daughter are doing just that, finding "the seed for good" and sharing their harvest of joy, healing and love.