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As a preacher's wife, Mrs. Bentley made many a sacrifices as well. Her true love and passion was playing harmonic tunes on the piano, however, being the wife of a preacher replaced those desires, placing them up onto a shelf to collect dust. The closest Mrs. Bentley could come to expressing her talent was by playing old hymns, very slowly, on the organ at church services. Due to the economic downfall from the great depression, Mrs. Bentley and her husband were both forced to put their dreams on a back burner, and pledge for the secure and stable wages offered to a minister. This entailed living poorly under the hypocrisy of the towns people, forced into the ways of their stereotypical thinking of how a preacher should live. With buckets to catch the water drops leaking from the poorly maintained roof, and layers of dust collection upon all of their belongings, they sacrificed for there survival. .
Ma and Mrs. Bentley both endured suffering of their own. Ma is a very sensitive woman, and loves her family dearly. When there was a promise of work for 800 men in California, she steered her family in that direction, in hopes of bettering their financial situation, and prevent suffering and starvation that would sooner or later be directed towards her family. When they got to California, the conclusion to their delegation was drawn up in black and white: there were no jobs available. There were 800 available, but thousands of flyers went out to eager men, thus forth everyone flocked to one area for a job opportunity. This made Ma feel like she let her family down by making the wrong decision, therefore, having her suffer in her own emotions. Ma also went through a lot of suffering with the vast amount of death that took place on their journey for a better means of living. With both Granma and Granpa dying among their travels, it was very difficult just to pull over to the side of the road, burry a family member, and then be on your way again, leaving them behind.