Unable to pay a lawyer, she spent hours studying at the law library at Eighth and Chestnut Streets and managed to get the house back, racking up $38 in legal costs.
The property's buyer, on learning that she was a minister and what she was using the house for, declined to fight for it, Boatwright says, and decided to write off what he paid for the place.
What makes Boatwright unusual is that when faced with a financial problem, she chose not to bury her head in the sand, hoping that it would somehow fix itself.
Too often, people who are behind in bill payments avoid opening late notices from their credit card companies, the bank, their mortgage lender or the utility company, or refuse to answer the phone.
It doesn't make the problem go away. It aggravates it, and the outcome is rarely what was hoped for.
People like Boatwright have the right idea: You have a problem, you do something about it - and do it quickly.
What perplexes me, though, is that too often we see a problem coming a mile away and we stand there and say, "Maybe everything will work out," and just let it happen.
Textbook example: Say I apply for a mortgage. The broker tells me that there is a cap on the interest rate and no prepayment penalty for when I try to refinance in, say, two years. But when I show up at settlement, I learn that there is no such cap, and that there is, indeed, a hefty prepayment penalty.
I sign on the dotted line anyway, because I really want this house even though I won't be able to afford it in nine months. Maybe everything will be OK.
We are a nation of complainers, yet we seem more than eager to be screwed over. That way, we'll always have something to grouse about, and we can try to find someone else to blame.
