Isms: Views on life in rural America

When your children aren’t children anymore, when they’re almost 40, you still pray for their safety, for health and happiness, maybe even a better life than the one you provided.

For the past six weeks, the number of prayers for daughter Amanda’s health - physical and mental - has increased. Since Sept. 19, Amanda has been in the hospital 35 days. Somewhere in that span, she ventured home for 36 hours, but her condition deteriorated and the doctor prescribed a return trip to the hospital.

Originally, she was diagnosed with bronchitis. When she slipped at work and thought she cracked a rib, an...