Sandra Garvin attributes much of her success to "a combination of personality and desperation."

With a courage borne of necessity, Garvin overcame tragedy, financial burdens and fear one step at a time, creating her own destiny despite overwhelming personal circumstances.

As executive director of The Orchard retirement home in Ridgeland, Garvin succeeded through determination and hard work.

"I look back and think I have come a very long way," she said.

At 61, the Madison resident with a high school diploma and a one-year certificate from a small business school now manages the staff of 300 people required to run a facility for more than 200 senior residents.

"I'm not the kind of person who can get up and speak in front of people, but just give me any kind of work challenge, and I can do it," Garvin said.

But her career path did not take the more common route of college preparation followed by special assistance from someone who knew someone. She succeeded because she had to.

Soon after graduating from Hickory High School in 1959, Garvin moved to Newton with her new husband, Charles E. Reeves.

"I took a business course for a year at Clark College there," she said.

In 1960, their son Rusty was born.

The next three years meant relocations for her railroad-employed husband. The family moved to Mobile, then Laurel, where she worked as a legal secretary.

By 1964, the year their second son, Tim, came along, they were back in Newton, where they intended to settle down.

"That was home," Garvin said. "We were going to stay there."

She found a job as an administrative assistant at Newton County Bank, where she worked for 12 years, filling in for every department whenever somebody wasn't there.

Then, in the six months from October 1975 to March 1976, Garvin's life changed forever.

That October Rusty, a linebacker for the Newton High School Tigers, broke his neck after colliding head-on with an opponent on the football field. Paralyzed from the shoulders down, he would never walk again.

Just six months later, with her son still in rehab at the Mississippi Methodist Rehabilitation Center in Jackson, Garvin's husband, Charles, was killed in a car wreck in Newton.

Despite the tragedies, Garvin faced the unrelenting task of supporting the family.

When Rusty was released from rehab, the family moved with him to Starkville. Garvin worked for the Bank of North Mississippi while her son attended Mississippi State University.

A year later they landed in Jackson.

"With Rusty being injured, it was a hard thing to figure out what job I could do to really support us," Garvin said. "I decided to get into real estate.

"I thought it was a good choice because I could have a flexible schedule and I needed to work out of my house, because somebody had to be with Rusty a lot of the time. I took the course, passed and tried it for awhile. But interest rates were at 14 percent and nobody could afford to buy a house at 14 percent. So I couldn't make it at this."

Financial realities dictated that Garvin do something � fast � but at this point she literally had no idea which direction to turn.

"So I got in my car one day and started driving and I said, 'What can I do?'" she remembers. "While I was driving I passed Tracewood Apartments on Old Canton Road, and I thought, 'That's something I could do � manage property.'"

Garvin walked into the management office and introduced herself to a total stranger who would become a lifelong friend.

"Claudia Wren, the manager, was there, and I said to her, 'You don't know me and I don't know you, but I need a job.'

"She looked at me and saw the car I was driving and the clothes I wore and she said, You don't look like you need to work.' But then she said she had just hired a leasing agent that day.

"I was desperate," Garvin said. "I was two house payments behind and I had to do something."

Garvin told Wren that if by chance the new agent did not show up for work the next day, she wanted that job.

The leasing agent never materialized.

"When (Wren) told me that, I said, 'I will start today.' Before that week was over that apartment complex was just about full. There were a lot of vacancies. I made commission off the leases, plus a little salary.

"I did so well that two months later I was a manager myself," she said.

Property owner Krupp Asset Realty of Boston had a manager leave at a sister property, then Sky Harbor Apartments on Lake Harbour Drive.

"So they called Claudia and asked, 'Do you know anybody you can send?' I said, 'Claudia, I'll go. Just give me a chance.'"

That "chance" gave Garvin a paycheck until 1987.

By then she had moved to another Krupp property, the new Pear Orchard Apartments in Ridgeland, and was managing all three of the companies' local apartment complexes � about 1,000 units in all.

Next door, The Orchard was going up, and the man who would eventually manage the retirement home came to live at Pear Orchard.

When the new facility opened, Garvin said The Orchard's manager "was here probably six months and he went with another company.

"He approached me about his job, and I said, 'Sure, tell me what it pays."

After they discussed some details, Garvin told him, "OK, get me an interview."

The interview with The Orchard owners Charles F. Craig and Thad W. McLaurin changed her life. She started in early 1987.

"As soon as I started I thought, 'Oh, I have made the biggest mistake,' said Garvin. "It was a big change. It took me awhile to get adjusted to the difference.

"As time went by, I realized I had made the right move."

Today, Garvin credits Craig and McLaurin with giving her the opportunity of a lifetime.

"They are wonderful people to work for," she said. "It has been a challenge, a wonderful adventure."

During Garvin's 16-year tenure at the facility, The Orchard has grown from only independent and personal care units, adding a 26-bed Alzheimer's unit in 1991 and a 60-bed private pay nursing home three years ago.

She also lived out another "adventure" when her bosses bought and sold a similar facility in Santa Fe, N.M., during the mid-90s.

Garvin is proud to say that she is a "working executive" over the 10-acre site.

"I'm a real hands-on person," she said. "I go over all the financials, I manage the kitchen, maintenance, nursing, office personnel, bookkeepers, leasing.

"Anything that is purchased here must come through me."

The biggest joy of her work, she said, is "the residents who live here and my employees. I enjoy helping people. I'm close to my employees."

Garvin remains enthusiastic about her work and enjoys life at home with husband James Larry Garvin, to whom she's been married 13 years.

"Right now in my life I am very content with my work," she said. "I have no thoughts of retiring.

"I would like to work as many years as I can, as long as I'm productive and in good health."

Away from the office, she relishes her husband's pride in her accomplishments.

An administrator and former personnel director for Madison County Schools, James Garvin delights in his wife's success.

"I think my family is proud of me," she said. "My husband has all kinds of degrees, diplomas, college rings, and he says, 'You are so much smarter than me.'"

Ironically, James Garvin and her sons' father were "friends forever in school," she said. "He was in my first wedding."

Her relationship with Rusty, now 43 and the author of two novels published the past 18 months, has never been better.

"Rusty and I are best friends," she said. Helping him through the worst times over the past 28 years has been "probably the biggest challenge of my life."

"To help us survive and keep his morale up, you go day by day." she said. "I told him I believe God has a plan, that whatever happens in your life, there's a reason.

"I never look back. I never ask why."

Garvin's professional relationships have brought personal rewards, too.

McLaurin, managing general partner at The Orchard, praised Garvin's business and people skills.

"She came at a time when we really needed some strong management and fiscal constraints and controls," he said. "I can't say enough about her.

"She's here all the time, she knows all the employees and looks after their interests. She's dedicated."

Dianne Bates, assistant director at The Orchard, has known Garvin since 1979.

"I love her to death," Bates said. "She's one of the nicest people I've ever known.

"She has really taught me a lot and has been instrumental in helping me achieve my goals and further my own career."

"As a manager, she's fantastic," Bates said. "She is a very caring person. She pays attention to details, not only with the business but the employees and the residents. She is involved with it all."

Personal care director and Orchard Care coordinator Shirley Buckley called Garvin a "hard worker who never quits until the job is done."

A co-worker of Garvin's for more than 20 years, Buckley said Garvin "does not mind pitching in and helping out to make sure it's done correctly. She's very energetic and always keeps a smile on her face.

"I am who I am today because of her help," Buckley said. "I work hard to make her proud of me everyday. She's a great person. You can't help but love her."