Lawyers don?t go to heaven

As a student, Owens expressed a desire to become an attorney, but her mother curtly told her, ?lawyers don?t go to heaven?. Instead, she chose to do nursing and after high school, enrolled in the University College (UC, now the University of the West Indies) and soon graduated as a registered nurse. Following that, she attained her certificate in midwifery from Good Hope Maternity Hospital, Sutton, Coldfield, England.

Nursing vacancies

She returned to Jamaica to ply her trade, but soon enough she was off to the United States of America as one of the many Jamaican nurses who emigrated there to fill nursing vacancies. She first found employment in Texas before moving to Florida, where she has been ever since.

About two years into living in Miami, ?I got the bug,? as she puts it, and decided she wanted to pursue a degree. At that time, education for nurses was free, so Owens enrolled in the University of Miami (UM). ?I was very bored there?, she explained. ?Coming from Jamaica, I already knew everything,? she added. So to add more intrigue to her studies, Owens did a business course and ?I loved it,? she says. In fact, she loved it so much, she ended up changing universities and changing her major. She moved from UM to Florida International University (FIU) where she did international relations. No longer worried about the warning of her mother that ?lawyers don?t go to heaven.? Owens then enrolled in law school at the University of Florida, in Gainesville, Florida.

Right out of law school, she landed a job as an assistant state attorney, working under Janet Reno, who was then the state attorney for Dade County (now called Miami-Dade County).

?That?s where I really learned to litigate,? she says, where she describes the sink or swim scenarios she was thrust into as a young attorney. ?You were just given a case and told you had to try it later that day,? she exclaimed; ?not even the weekend to prepare!? Eventually, she mastered her new trade, garnering experience in criminal law, and also entertainment law. In entertainment law, she several contract negotiations with record labels, which piqued her interest in the management aspect of music.

Though good at her job, the demanding nature of her practice soon left Owens feeling burnt out. She says: ?I was sad, had low energy, and that?s not me. I have energy for everybody!?

Feeling disappointed

Lorna Owens now gives more of her life to charity. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Particularly, she felt disheartened by the tendency of some of her criminal clients to fall back into the same debacle she helped get them out of. ?I really thought I could change people, encourage them to go back to school, get a degree and such, but a week after I got them off, they would do it again.?

This feeling of disappointment coincided with a visit to Jamaica only eight years ago to attend her stepfather?s funeral.

?People came from all over and had many wonderful things to say of dad. They told stories of all the people he helped: children who he sent to school, families he helped with food, and the like. I was amazed that one man could do so much and thought that?s what I really want to do, be an influence,? she explains. Owens wanted to be remembered for more than just getting people out of jail.

So, she quit her law practice.

Broke but happy

She then invested all the money she had amassed, which amounted to approximately US$1.5 million into her own record label, naming it Positive Vibe Music, and banking on the success of her sole artiste, Jamaican gospel singer, Glacia Robinson.

Not long after Owens? initial investment, Robinson soon fell ill, and according to Owens, ?she never recovered.? Owens did not recover immediately either. The label was dissolved and she lost all the money she had plugged into Robinson and the company, and eventually filed for bankruptcy.

She had to sell her Jaguar, and at one point faced the possibility of her house being foreclosed. ?I kept in mind that God will always provide for me, and I should not be concerned with ?how?, but just be faithful to the cause,? says Owens.

Despite being broke, without transportation and inches from homelessness, Owens says she was still happy, ?giddy happy?, as she new that though the course of her life had changed, she still had to arrive at a pre-determined destination. When plans seem to fail, ?tweak it a bit, but don?t quit?, she says.

Speaking for a living

?I started speaking to women about changing their life,? she explains, ?as it was only when I lost almost everything that I started having a story to tell.?

She would go from city to city, sometimes with accommodation, sometimes without, speaking to whomever would listen.

Over time, her popularity grew, and she would soon be able to command compensation for her efforts, and now commands as much as US$7,500 per seminar.

?I thought this time I would do it right, and give more of my life to charity.? With that, she is always working to empower women, be it by offering counselling to women in prison, or by hosting seminars with career women who have ?lost their way?.

Everyday Miracle

In continuing her work to empower women, Owens compiled a book, Everyday Grace, Everyday Miracle of 44 stories, including her own, told by women from 10 different countries.

?It sets out various ways in which you can turn around your life,? explains Owens, who also reveals that the book has a blank page at the back to give readers a chance to tell their own story.

Women Travel First Class

Women from around the world will have another opportunity to tell their story from October 4-7, 2007 when Owens returns to Jamaica to host a Gleaner/Flair Magazine-sponsored retreat at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, St. James, called ?Women Travel First Class?. Owens is inviting women from all over the world to talk, cry and heal, and apart from offering ?healing from the level of the soul,? she hopes to show women from all over the world that, ?you can come to Jamaica to play, and to do business.?