Joan (as I will call her) came to visit last week with two of her children. The last time we saw one another was more than twenty years ago. Then she was living in the Boston area, married and filled with hope for the good life. Little did she know of the hard times that lay ahead.

First, she and her husband moved away to Wyoming, largely because he wanted to live in the west and work on machines. Though highly schooled, he always preferred  work with his hands over anything connected with the classroom.

Eleven years ago, he left Joan and their children, moved back to Los Angeles, divorced and married another woman. Though the children come for extended stays with him, still the main responsibility for their upbringing has fallen to their mother.

The break-up of her marriage left Joan with practically no money. And in the little Wyoming town where they live, finding work is difficult. Often, Joan has wondered where the next hundred dollars would come from.

But she has scraped together what jobs she could, writing and teaching, while getting further schooling so as to be professionally qualified as an elementary school teacher. She has done a fair amount of journalism as a free lancer but that activity usually does not pay enough to support a family. The same can be said of the book she published; it was an achievement for her but not one that has received much of a reward.

The son and daughter who came on the visit with Joan appear bright and interested in their own future. Matt, although still a freshman in high school, came to scout colleges in the Boston area with a view toward a career in music. And Jenny, an eighth grader, also shows promise in music and envisions the time when she will set out on her own.

Another of Joan’s daughters, by reason of a learning disability has found adjustment to school difficult. Achieving a GED was a proud accomplishment for her. Now twenty, back home and unmarried, she is going to have a child a few weeks from now.

In sharing the latter news with us, Joan showed the kind of person she is. She said “We are about to have a baby” and, despite the circumstances, she spoke with some joy about becoming a grandmother. The prospect of further responsibility for a young child does not daunt her.

It seems clear that Joan would never have survived so well through so many trials unless she were a woman of spirit. To her, faith is of supreme importance in her life. Earlier she had joined a Christian church different from the one in which she had grown up, a passage that continues to provide her with meaning.

She has been long involved in her parish church helping young people in need. The good of her local community looms large for her; so does the welfare of the church at large. She told of her joy at the priestly ordination of a local young man who had been sent to Rome for his theological studies and now serves the diocese of Cheyenne.

Sitting at lunch with us, Joan took the initiative in asking God’s blessing over our simple meal. Clearly she refers the events of her life, large and small, to the God of love.

Joan’s approach to life reminds me of what one of my favorite gurus, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, once said: “There is no human being who does not carry a treasure in his soul, a moment of insight, a memory of love, a dream of excellence, a call to worship.”  She has it all: a rich soul, insight, love, a longing for excellence, and a feeling for God.

Despite the severe difficulties she has faced as a financially strapped single mother living far away from her native ground, Joan has kept the faith and run the race while staying focused, not on herself, but rather on the children given her to provide for.

This is the kind of spirituality in action that wins my admiration. To persevere in this kind of life takes human gumption; it also testifies to the power of faith and love as gifts from God.

Richard Griffin