In 1996 Donna Powell was 24 years old. She had two children and a husband dabbling in meth. “I was in a tough place. I prayed to God to show me the Light.” Today Donna owns a $3 million staffing agency, an insurance company, and a collection of real estate in Durant. She lives with her second husband Del at the end of the road in Eagle Lake. Their 4,000 square foot home on four acres has patio views over the swimming pool and sunsets shimmering off the lake. “It’s all because God blessed me. I had no skills. I still don’t. My success is all through God.”

Donna’s two children are now near the age of her own transformation. Her daughter Haley, 23, is a world traveller who’s been to China several times, lived in El Salvador and now Jordan. She’s finished college and applied for a Fulbright to study the plight of the Roma people of Eastern Europe. “When we looked at Haley as a baby, we knew that we needed to be better. She’s always been an extraordinary person, and she brought the best out in us.”

It strikes me that Donna, who may be the only MSNBC junkie in Durant, is overly modest. She probably has very good business skills and effective parenting skills. She obliviously knows how to pray and to capitalize on the good things that come her way.

How will we live tomorrow?

“Regardless who wins this election, we’re going to live. We’ve gotten through The Great Recession, the Bush years. If Donald Trump gets elected we’ll survive.

“I am less stressed than I used to be. I work with twenty year olds and see how stressed out they are. We get mellower with age. That’s how I’ll live tomorrow. Happy I’m not twenty.”