Monthly Archives: June 2020

Kind, Giving and Loving

Love doesn’t care about your sex, wealth, color, education, or any other ‘who you are’ category, and it’s what I’m talking about in today’s Graphically Said post.

From dad’s book, “Bluebell”, we learn that the “grandson of a slave, Willis Jefferson’s severe, but relatively happy childhood had ended in its ninth year.” He deeply loved his parents but it didn’t keep them from dying.

And then, only three years later he nearly died himself on the plains of Kansas in a terrible storm. Had it not been for Rowena Kramer, his rescuer, he would have perished and we wouldn’t have dad’s book.

Following the rescue, as Willis awoke in his new ‘home’, we hear his benefactor say…

“Well, what’s this?  Do you mean that the brave young man who was out in that terrible storm, all alone, is afraid of me?” There followed several quick, light steps, and the bed dipped as she seated herself beside him.  “Come now, I really can’t believe that!”  Gently she tugged at the blanket.  “Why-why don’t you tell me about it?”

Slowly, apprehensively, he let the covers slip from his grasp, and peered up through half closed lids…it was her hair that he saw first.  It fell down over her shoulders and about her face…her beautiful face. It had never occurred to Willis that a white face could be beautiful, but then, he had never seen one filled with love and compassion.  As these thoughts raced about his mind, it came to him that he’d never considered white folk as anything more than something to fear and avoid.”

This is the woman, linked with his own mother in the following quote, that enabled him to be a man of care and concern, when confronted with a situation that would alter his future terribly, yet exactly as he imagined.

A Few More Steps to Ponder