I remember Avas as a pale, quiet woman. That’s how she was during the three years my family lived in the Chicago area and we attended church at the mission. According to my mother, there were quite a few days that Avas couldn’t get out of bed because she wasn’t feeling well. 

A few years after this photo was taken, Carl died. What did Avas do? We heard she started a new life. She began playing her harp again and giving concerts, perhaps until she was well into her eighties and maybe her nineties. No more days in bed for her.

You might think from those details that Avas was unhappy with Carl, but I don’t think so. I think she may have been unhappy with her restricted life in a gloomy flat above a storefront mission in a very rough area of Chicago.

Avas didn’t die until 2001 when she was 107 years old.