What a blessing to have known her, and what a great lesson for all of to be willing to serve in a job that might not sound all that good at the beginning, but might hold something very special indeed!

The job was being a companion to Elma Stuckey. Whenever we talked to each other it seemed as though she was my age. She liked to hear about what I was doing and I loved hearing about her civil rights days and she also had the original Jet magazine with Emmitt Till’s funeral.

It used to make me kind of sad that she was a double amputee and couldn’t get out. She lived in a nice little house in Pill Hill but there were steep steps to climb in the front and back which was dangerous for her. We kept in touch until she passed away in 1987 or 88. I visited her grave about a month or two ago and had a real nice conversation with her. I told her that I missed talking to her about different things. I wanted to contact her son, Sterling, about a story she said she was working on that I don’t think she ever finished. I wanted to finish the rest of her story because when she was telling me about it it sounded like it was really going to be good.

Notice that intersection of people: Paul, Sterling (and Harriet!), Lewis, and me. Church is the sweet spot — some might say it’s more of a crucible — for bringing different people together who would otherwise not have the occasion to interact.