Reader’s Digest Australia & New Zealand – May 2019

LESSONS OF FRIENDSHIP

60 | May• 2019

BY BILLWESTBROOK

O

NE MORNING IN JULY

1963 my wife said to me,

“Weegee Lovell says Tom

Butterfield needs help.

Why don’t you run out there with your

hammer and see what you can do?”

Tom was single and 23, a recent

college graduate who had started a

private, non-profit farm for home-

less boys. Weegee Lovell, our neigh-

bour, was on his board of advisors. I

had a weakness for woodcraft and,

as a teacher, scoutmaster and father

of three, I loved watching kids grow

and helping them when I could.

But as I drove through the steamy

Missouri heat, I was convinced that

Tom was in over his head. He was

hardly more than a boy himself.

And his ‘farm’, an abandoned coun-

try club on the outskirts of town,

was worse than I expected. Doors

were off hinges, windows broken,

the roof gaped.

A gaunt young man, over 1.8 me-

tres tall with red hair, came around

the corner. “Hi,” he said, giving me a

freckled grin and a firm handshake.

“I’m Tom Butterfield.” He intro-

duced the two boys with him, both

no more than ten, as Andy and Dan.

“Bill Westbrook,” I announced.

“And this isn’t going to work.”

“Well, sit down,” replied Tom, still

grinning. “Let’s talk about it.”

Twenty minutes later when I left

to get a truckload of shingles, I

had joined Weegee Lovell as one of

Tom’s strongest supporters.

TOM HAD BEEN working his way

through college as an aide at the

state mental hospital when he met

six-year-old Andy, the first of ‘his

The Children

NOBODY WANTED