By ANN ALLEN
Indiana Correspondent

CLARKSBURG, Ind. — All roads will lead to Clarksburg on April 17 when members of this rural Decatur Co. community join forces to stage a dinner and two auctions to aid Brenda Alverson, a farm wife whose road to recovery following a liver transplant last year can only be described as rocky. The evening’s activities will begin at 4 p.m.
in the Clarksburg Community Volunteer Fire Department building.
The auctions could take awhile. “We have two pages of donated items,” said Cal Tipton, a retired farmer and one of the organizers. “They range from four or five hundred dollar items to $25 gift certificates – all quality stuff.”

And quality is the word Clarksburg residents use in describing Brenda and her husband Larry. “They’re just great people,” Tipton said. “Anyone looking at them would consider them wealthy, but her illness has been devastating. We aim to help them all we can.”
Until her liver disease became so advanced that a transplant was the only option, Brenda served as bookkeeper for the family’s farming operation.

“I did the farming, and she took care of the books,” Larry Alverson said. “I didn’t know until later that she’d changed our health insurance to one with a high deductible. She thought it was a way to save money, but it’s gotten pretty costly.”

The procedure has taken her in and out of an Indianapolis hospital many times as doctors fought one infection after another. She was able to return home for Easter and her family hopes she can stay there although she will continue to have therapy at a local hospital.
Friends and family have charted her progress on a Facebook page called “Prayers 4 Brenda,” where husband Larry noted the couple’s 37th wedding anniversary on Feb. 25 by recalling that Brenda always claimed they were married, while it was still winter so he could do the spring planting uninterrupted. Each of their three children, he claimed, was born so as not to interrupt planting season. “She’s still a city girl at heart,” he said. “She just doesn’t understand seasons.”

Her illness, however, has interrupted every season of their lives. And it has caused Larry Alverson to bury his pride and let his church and community help his family just as he has helped others over the years. “I decided I’d better just shut up and get out of the way,” he said. “What they’re doing is wonderful.”

Equally wonderful as far as organizers are concerned is how Brenda’s illness has brought the community together. “It’s very exciting seeing people stepping up to help out,” said the Rev. Jerran Jackson, minister of the Clarksburg Christian Church, where the Alversons are active members.

Cal Tipton is even more enthusiastic. “It’s refreshing to see so many people helping, joining hands, just being neighbors. The Amish have donated 25 pies and are sending us an auctioneer. The Catholic church is helping. People are getting together who haven’t talked for years. It’s rejuvenating to see people being human beings and helping someone in need.”