Waiting and praying: One senior in Clarkston's story to find affordable housing

Marsha Burges, a resident at Starnes Senior Residences, sits comfortably on her couch. (LaShawn Hudson/WABE)

You can feel the spirit of gratitude throughout every square inch of Marsha Burges’s one-bedroom apartment.

Her most prized possession is a tan queen-sized quilt that has photos of her family on it. The letters on the blanket read: “Grandma’s Hearts.”

The 74-year-old, who is now a resident at Starnes Senior Residences in Clarkston, Georgia, says it was deep love for family and the pursuit of the American Dream that led her and her husband and their two children to relocate nearly 700 miles away south to The Peach State more than two decades ago.