Loretta Lynn is as resilient as they come. The 88-year-old has endured plenty of hardships over the years, including a stroke in 2017 and a broken hip in 2018, but even those didn’t keep her down for long, thanks to her hard work, day and night, until she got her strength back.

“I think it was harder to come back from my hip than anything,” Loretta told Sounds Like Nashville. “With the stroke, I started working on it by myself even at night. I’d work my arms and legs while I was laying in the bed. I didn’t rest. I just kept working. If you’ve got an arm that doesn’t work, work on it day and night. If you’ve got a leg that doesn’t work, work on it day and night. That’s the way I had to do it.”

Loretta recently penned a book, Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust: My Friendship with Patsy Cline, chronicling her close friendship with Patsy Cline. Loretta met Patsy while Patsy was in the hospital recovering from a car crash in 1961, and the two maintained a close friendship until Patsy was killed in a plane crash in 1963.

“I’ve often wondered what she would be doing today if she was here,” Loretta lamented. “It would be something else. I can’t even imagine. It’s too bad we weren’t together more and longer. We would have tore up Nashville that’s for sure.”

Still, although Patsy wasn’t around for much of Loretta’s historic career, the late star still helped direct Loretta, long after she was gone.

“The most important thing Patsy taught me was do not let people run over me and take up for myself,” Loretta said. “Be my own person.”

Loretta says she is working on new music from her ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. Purchase Me & Patsy Kickin’ Up Dust: My Friendship with Patsy Cline at LorettaLynn.com.