About April
Still here. Still fighting.
April Smith is a wife, a mom, a “Gigi,” a woman of faith, and a survivor. She lives without a stomach, travels the country with her husband David and her service dog Pinky, and shares her story with anyone who needs a reason to keep going.
Life before
April’s life used to be full. Full of movement, full of noise, full of purpose. Work gave her structure and her family gave her joy. Then came the pain: in and out of emergency rooms, test after test, and doctors who told her she was fine when she knew she was not.
The day everything changed
In June 2021, David came home to find April vomiting blood. What followed was a blur of ambulances, an air evacuation to Denton, Texas, life support, transfusions, and months of liquid nutrition through a PICC line. In December 2021, surgeons told her they could not save her stomach. They removed it, along with her spleen and parts of her intestines. One surgeon admitted he had never removed a full stomach before and did not know what normal would look like afterward.
April learned to eat again, slowly and painfully, inch by inch and day by day. She learned to live in a body that hurt and no longer looked like hers.
Faith in the fire
Through all of it, April held on to her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the memoir she writes about the moments she felt Jesus and His angels near her, telling her it was not her time. She had once feared God was punishing her. Instead, she writes, “I understood then that He wasn’t punishing me, He was preparing me.” She believes she is still here for a reason, and sharing her story is part of it.
Choosing to live
April did not want to spend her days staring at the same walls. So she and David bought an RV, David found work he could do from the road, and they set out to live, not just exist. Along the way they found a second family in the Airstream community, “some of the most genuine and caring people on this earth.”
On the road, April started talking with strangers. A man pleading on the phone with a loved one who wanted to give up. A woman outside her camper who realized she and her husband still had time. Conversation by conversation, April saw that her survival could become someone else’s lifeline. That is why she wrote Against All Odds: The Fight Within.
Life before
April’s life used to be full. Full of movement, full of noise, full of purpose. Work gave her structure and her family gave her joy. Then came the pain: in and out of emergency rooms, test after test, and doctors who told her she was fine when she knew she was not.
The day everything changed
In June 2021, David came home to find April vomiting blood. What followed was a blur of ambulances, an air evacuation to Denton, Texas, life support, transfusions, and months of liquid nutrition through a PICC line. In December 2021, surgeons told her they could not save her stomach. They removed it, along with her spleen and parts of her intestines. One surgeon admitted he had never removed a full stomach before and did not know what normal would look like afterward.
April learned to eat again, slowly and painfully, inch by inch and day by day. She learned to live in a body that hurt and no longer looked like hers.
Faith in the fire
Through all of it, April held on to her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the memoir she writes about the moments she felt Jesus and His angels near her, telling her it was not her time. She had once feared God was punishing her. Instead, she writes, “I understood then that He wasn’t punishing me, He was preparing me.” She believes she is still here for a reason, and sharing her story is part of it.
Choosing to live
April did not want to spend her days staring at the same walls. So she and David bought an RV, David found work he could do from the road, and they set out to live, not just exist. Along the way they found a second family in the Airstream community, “some of the most genuine and caring people on this earth.”
On the road, April started talking with strangers. A man pleading on the phone with a loved one who wanted to give up. A woman outside her camper who realized she and her husband still had time. Conversation by conversation, April saw that her survival could become someone else’s lifeline. That is why she wrote Against All Odds: The Fight Within.
“This isn’t the end. It is the continuation of a life that still has meaning.”
— April Smith, Against All Odds: The Fight Within
Her partner in the fight
David
April dedicated her memoir first to her husband, David, “for always fighting, pushing for me to be here, and never giving up on me.” His military experience told him right away how serious things were that June night, and he stayed beside her through every hospital, appointment, and long night that followed. When April was too tired to speak, David spoke for her.
On a hard evening, when April told him she was tired of fighting, he answered: “Then fight for us. Fight for tomorrow. Fight for the next laugh.”
David also did most of Pinky’s service dog training, and he brings Pinky’s story to life as the illustrator of the Pinky Adventures books.
From Pinky Learns the Job. Illustrations created by David Smith with AI image tools.
Her partner in the fight
David
April dedicated her memoir first to her husband, David, “for always fighting, pushing for me to be here, and never giving up on me.” His military experience told him right away how serious things were that June night, and he stayed beside her through every hospital, appointment, and long night that followed. When April was too tired to speak, David spoke for her.
On a hard evening, when April told him she was tired of fighting, he answered: “Then fight for us. Fight for tomorrow. Fight for the next laugh.”
David also did most of Pinky’s service dog training, and he brings Pinky’s story to life as the illustrator of the Pinky Adventures books.
From Pinky Learns the Job. Illustrations created by David Smith with AI image tools.
Four paws, big heart
Pinky
“He is a great example of God giving you what you need, even when you have no idea you need it,” April writes. “God sent me Pinky.”
April and her daughter Alexis named him for the pink spot on his nose. David did most of his training, and Pinky learned his most important job well: when April needs help, he goes to David and paws at him. On the road, at rallies, and at home, Pinky stays close.
Vest off means rest. From Pinky Learns the Job.
Family first
April is the proud mom of Alexis and Devin, mother-in-law to Morgan, and “Gigi” to two grandbabies she loves to the moon and back. Her family is one of her biggest reasons to keep going.