Eighty-seven-year-old Billie Salsman is one in a group of 6 million Americans aged 85 or older. She has no children and has lived alone since her husband’s death in 2008. Salsman has a multitude of health issues and has recently suffered from three strokes that have affected her speech, mental processing and the ability to swallow. She continues to live in her home, alone, rather than in an assisted living facility or nursing home, due to her limited retirement income. Salsman is dependent on neighbors who drive her to the grocery store and doctor’s appointments. Therapists provide her with in-home services. To combat her loneliness, Salsman passes the time reading the Bible and researching her family’s genealogy, as Salsman no longer attends in-person church services. She credits her longevity to her Christian faith, “You must remember the word ‘joy.’ Put Jesus first, then others, and then yourself.”

After washing dishes from her evening meal, Billie Salsman, 87, peers out the kitchen window of her Hodgenville, Kentucky, to check on her neighbor. “It’s hard living alone as far as not having my husband or other people here, but I’m never really alone because the scripture teaches me God is always with me.”