 In 1974 she inherited her grandparents' farm in Lemmon, South Dakota, moved there with her husband David Dwyer.In Lemmon, she joined Spencer Memorial Presbyterian church, and discovered the spirituality of the Great Plains.In 1986, Norris entered a new, non-fiction phase in her literary career after becoming a Benedictine oblate at Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota, and spending extended periods at Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.