Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world.

Famous People Column – An open Column for all writers

September 4, 2007

Brother Billy
by Clara Wersterfer


My family was all church going folks. Nothing made them happier than a good revival. They never missed a night during revival and still went twice on Sunday. Mother could be dressed and ready to go faster than a speeding bullet when a revival was in town. During the '50's we heard there was a preacher holding a meeting at the City Auditorium in Asheville.

His name was Billy Graham. He was born over near Charlotte, NC less than a hundred miles away, we felt like he was homefolks. The whole family attended: parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Billy Graham was the most powerful preacher we had ever witnessed. He had a way of speaking that was compelling, almost mesmerizing. My family left the auditorium with a warm afterglow. You
knew you had been in the presence of someone special.

We were privileged to hear him preach several more times over the years, until he began his crusade which would take him to the far reaches of our world. We heard he bought some
acreage in  Montreat, about 30 miles from Asheville and built a house. We got the location
and after church one Sunday, took a drive to see his place. We expected to see a really fine home.

Imagine our chagrin when we drove past and there was an old log house sort of hanging on the side of the mountain with a dirt road to get to it. Nothing pretentious about that house!

There has never been anything pretentious about Billy Graham either. Humility should have been his middle name. He still lives in that old log house, built from the logs of two very old cabins. Should you ask him about the house, I'm confident he would tell you that his needs are fulfilled. It doesn't take material things to make a person happy who is content within their own body and the
soul is fulfilled.

Clara Wersterfer

cbwest@webtv.net