Martha Schrimsher, 68, still rakes her own leaves outside the home she rents, despite being a great-grandmother.

“I’ll keep going ‘til the Lord takes me,” Schrimsher said.

Though the yard work wears her out, Schrimsher said she does a little bit each day and is able to get by.

“I’ve got to keep working,” she said. “I’ll lay down when I’m dead.”

Schrimsher is hoping to move with her son to subsidized housing on State Street.

“I’ll never live to see it paid for,” Schrimsher said. “But I think of my son. It would be nice for him.”

Her current rental on Payne Street has a large yard that’s too much for her to keep up with.

“This place costs a fortune,” she said. “By now I probably could have bought it, but I didn’t want to be tied down.”

Schrimsher said she never thought of buying a home until recently.

“I’ve always been running, running,” she said. “I went through a divorce. I was just running. But now we are tired of moving. I want this for my son.”

Schrimsher said she hopes that assistance will help her with a down payment of about $28,000.

“A Thousand Words” is a weekly photo essay that tells untold stories on the edges of campus.