MARY ETTA SHARES HER STORY

You’d think Mary Etta might be slowing down, just a little anyways. After all, she’s 80 years old and has been married for 60 years to her husband, who most folks call Pastor Richard since he’s the pastor of the American Baptist church in DeSoto, Kansas. But you’d be wrong, of course. She and Richard have been doing the Lord’s work ever since they were in college together and neither of them have lost a step, “ever since we both felt moved to answer God’s call,” as Mary Etta likes to tell the story.

The truth is, Richard really hasn’t lost a step since his days as a record-setting runner on the college track team, and still walks a mile every single day of the year. “He’s kind of obsessive about his walking,” Mary Etta explains with a loving chuckle. “Even on winter days when we’re snowed in, he walks his mile inside our house.”

Mary Etta actually stays busy herself, putting in a good 60 hours a week “doing whatever the pastor needs,” and still finds the time and energy to head up their denomination’s missionary outreach of about 200 other churches in Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. She is well suited to her commitment to serving others, since she served for 50 years in the local high school teaching choral music and psychology, and also found time to coach the cheerleaders.

About a year ago, Mary Etta noticed her memory had begun to slip a little “and I realized I just wasn’t as sharp as I once was.” So she tried Prevagen and found that it works for her. “I’m still involved in many responsibilities needing memory and concentration, and because of the hundreds of people involved in the outreach I do my thinking is crucial. “I truly believe Prevagen helps,” she reports.

She had also noticed that her husband “was still able to deliver his Sunday sermon from memory, but he was having a lot of ums and ahs when he got to the announcements.” So she suggested he try some Prevagen too, and now “there’s not so many ums and ahs.”

For a person who has always led a busy and demanding life in support of a husband who has been doing the work of the Lord all their married life, Mary Etta has an unsurprisingly faith-based view of what it takes to lead a good life.

“Just follow the Golden Rule,” she says.

Coming from a woman of boundless energy and unshakeable faith who has managed to lead a fulfilling life, those may be old words but they are still good words. And Mary Etta utters them with nary an um or an ah.