a fairly secluded life that required dependence on God to get her through the challenges of day-to-day life that seemed to come one right after another. Some challenges came in her very young years when she realized the differences economically between herself and her family compared to others. Another even greater challenge came when she watched her mother, the one who was the glue that held the family together, die suddenly. Avie had just turned seventeen the month before, and because of her secluded lifestyle, she was really more like thirteen. Soon after, her elderly father checked himself into the VA hospital, thrusting her into an adult life head-on, trying to figure out how to survive on her own.

After marriage and having a child within the same year and shortly after taking on the responsibility of her baby sister who was now a teenager was another hurdle for her. Then came dealing with the second child having migraines that started during his very early years. After having three normal vaginal deliveries, the fourth child required a cesarean section. Around age eleven, this child began having seizures, and life with epilepsy began. Challenges with that came having to care for that child and then as an adult and making decisions for and with her.

The next big challenge came with caring for her husband of fifty-six years with end-stage congestive heart failure who became almost total care before his death. Then approximately three months following his death, after getting a booster injection, she herself developed symptoms of polymyalgia rheumatica and rheumatoid arthritis. Life itself is a challenge for anyone, but caring for others and hoping to make the right decisions could only be done by studying God's word for answers and lots and lots of prayer by herself and other prayer warriors.