In August 2002, I boarded a small plane with my 2-year-old son and my husband of 16 years. We were on a trip to see our family and a friend had graciously offered to fly us in his small plane. Unfortunately, we never arrived. Instead, I started the pain and anguish of crashing, losing my son immediately and my husband 20 days later. I was left with my own injuries and a heartbroken existence. I had lost the most important parts of my life and had to learn how to continue without them.

Through the process of healing physically, emotionally and spiritually, I was fortunate to have great friends, family and professional support. Yet many times I found myself wishing I could talk to someone who experienced the same profound loss. My loss was different than someone who had lost a child yet still was able to grieve with her husband—or someone who had lost a spouse yet still had children to pour his love into. I felt so alone.

Because I was on crutches for two years with a broken femur, I created a new company, LemonAid Crutches. Impassioned to take something awful and turn it into something wonderful, I began creating a line of designer crutches. It was a light-hearted yet determined idea, and through it, I wanted to give back and return some of the support I had received. I decided to give 50% of the profits of LemonAid Crutches and create a new foundation, Step With Hope.

Step With Hope is a nonprofit foundation that offers short term financial assistance, contacts and guidance to counseling and connection to community support for people who have experienced profound loss.

Profound loss is losing more than one of your family members. It defines someone who has lost too many people in his or her life to know which way to turn. Tailored to meet the individual needs of each person experiencing such pain, Step With Hope strives to reach out to those who feel alone in grief and devastation.

Finally, Step With Hope was founded to honor the lives of my husband, Clyde Johnson and my son, Macallan Johnson. They are the love of my life and the joy of my soul. As a family, we cherished each other, laughter, adventure and faith. I am able to relish those feelings again, and through Step With Hope, I strive to help others begin their recovery.

Laurie Johnson

To explore LemonAid Crutches, please visit
LemonAidCrutches.com. 50% of all profits from LemonAid Crutches go directly toward sustaining the efforts of Step With Hope.