In February of 1999, Mari Smith needed a sign from the universe. It showed up in the form of … cake.
The Scottish-Canadian had arrived in San Diego on a borrowed round-trip plane ticket (“That’s how broke I was!”) with 50 British pounds in her pocket and a feeling that she was supposed to start her nascent seminar business in the U.S. instead of Scotland, her former home.
But she was running out of time. She could only come into the country for 30 days without all her immigration paperwork done, and her deadline was looming.
“I absolutely knew I wasn’t going to go back,” she recalls. “I remember saying to the universe: ‘It’s been 4 weeks. I know I’m supposed to stay here. Just give me a sign.’”
Two hours later, a local bakery whose door Mari had knocked on (her father was a baker, from whom she had picked up a few tips as well as attending confectionery classes for a few years) called to see if she could come in and decorate cakes before the Valentine’s Day rush.
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