Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on September 5, 2009
In case you were wondering, the 90-year-old ailing evangelist Billy Graham may have trouble seeing, hearing and walking—but he doesn’t have a death wish. Nor is he depressed. So his daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, told Twin Cities radio station KTIS (which Billy Graham launched 60 years ago) in what seems like an answer to a question nobody asked.
“He struggles a little bit, I think, with a sense of purpose,” Lotz said.
On a positive note, she does add that he’s clear-minded, quick to pray about current events and deeply misses his late wife, Ruth Bell Graham who died in 2007.
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on March 23, 2009
“I realize that my ministry would someday come to an end. I am only one in a glorious chain of men and women God has raised through the centuries to build Christ’s church and to take the gospel everywhere.”
-Billy Graham
(Billy Graham: God’s Ambassador)
Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 13, 2009
In 2007, Billy Graham’s wife of 63 years, Ruth Bell Graham, passed away at their home in Montreat, N.C.
“I am so grateful to the Lord that He gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we’ve had in the mountains together,” Billy Graham said in a statement released at her death. “We’ve rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly, and look forward even more to the day I can join her in Heaven.”
As a continuing testament to their love, Ruth is never far from Billy’s mind.
An e-mail interview asked what life is like without Ruth, and Billy Graham responded: “Not a day, or even an hour, goes by that I don’t think about her and miss her. I rejoice that all the suffering she endured those last years is over, and that she’s safely in Heaven now with the Lord she loved and served almost her whole life. But I miss her very much, and I look forward to the time when we will be reunited.”
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Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks on February 7, 2009
Billy Graham’s coffin is ready and waiting for the day the 90-year-old evangelist passes away. He’s been looking forward to heaven for a long time, and his earthly preparations have been made. The simple coffin is made of birch plywood, lined with a foam mattress pad covered with fabric, and is adorned with brass handles on the sides and a cross on the top. It cost $215, matches the casket Graham’s wife Ruth was buried in when she died in 2007, and was made with care by a convicted felon.
Serving a life sentence at Angola State Penitentiary for second degree murder, Richard Liggett handcrafted simple plywood coffins for his fellow prisoners. The simplicity of the coffins struck Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham, who saw the coffins on a tour of the prison and requested a pair be made for his parents. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association supports a Bible college and chapel at the prison. Liggett became a Christian while at the prison and was honored to build the caskets for the Grahams.
They were among the last caskets he made. Richard Liggett died of cancer in March 2007 and was buried in one of his own caskets.
Despite controversy over the burial site, when Billy Graham dies he will be buried next to his wife at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte.
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