“Afterward, she had me up to their cabin for dinner. When
she asked me for some addresses, I pulled this envelope out of my
pocket to look for them—in prison you’re not allowed to have a
wallet, so you just carry an envelope. She asked, ‘Don’t you have
a wallet?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, this is my wallet.’ After five
years of brainwashing in prison you think an envelope isa wal-
let. She walked into the other room and came back and said,
‘Here’s one of Billy’s wallets. He doesn’t need it. You can have it.’”
■ ■ ■Sometimes love is shown by a thoughtful word, by willingness to
help an employee in trouble or by refusal to retaliate when
attacked; other times love is shown by simply showing up.
At the time Billy was in his mid-eighties and struggling phys-
ically, Leighton and Jean Ford’s daughter, Debbie—Billy’s niece—
had successfully endured cancer treatments but then learned the
cancer had recurred. Debbie was apprehensive as she entered the
Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, for a bone scan.
“I was very fearful of cancer being found somewhere else in
my body,” Debbie told us. As she walked back to her room, she
glanced down the empty hallway. There at the end, sitting in a
wheelchair and facing her direction, was a frail, older man. She
realized it was Billy, who happened to be at Mayo for some tests.
“Knowing I was there, he had asked the Mayo staff to locate
where I was in the clinic. I ran and threw my arms around him
and sobbed with all my heart. He held me tenderly, saying over
and over, ‘I love you.’
“When I looked up to tell him how frightened I was about my
recurrence, I saw that he was also crying. In his own weakened
state, he met me at my weakness.”
Debbie was deeply touched by this evidence of Billy’s love for
her. “Certainly he’s a great evangelist and confidant of leaders,”
said Debbie. “He’s also a tender and frail older man.
Despite the fact that he hurts like I do and has concerns for
his body like I do, he’s thoughtful and caring and willing to take
time for me, just as I am.”The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham