This precious widow called us almost daily because she was legally blind and wanted us to read the Bible to her.  One day she called and said, “I am so hungry for peach cobbler.”  We took her some and she called later and said happily, “do I sound like I’m full of peach cobbler?”

She searched the faces of each one who came,
Waiting for someone who’d call her by name.
“Where are you going? And who will you see?
Do you have some time to spend here with me?”

Each one who comes by has someone to see.
I guess it’s someone more special than me.

By the end of day, her head in her hands,
She wonders if God really understands
Why day after day and year after year,
Days begin with hope and dissolve in fear.

She’s old now, crippled, away from her home.
But that’s not as bad as being alone.
She goes to her room and retreats to bed.
Withdraws to memories she stored in her head.

Now she won’t get out of bed anymore.
She doesn’t get dressed to wait by the door.

The bright, shiny eyes that searched the faces
Are dull and lifeless – just empty blue cases.
They talk about her as though she’s not there
Because all they see is a vacant stare.

At the end of her life she didn’t ask much
Someone to talk to, to listen, to touch.
To embrace a child, be hugged by a friend,
To have someone there when you reach the end.

Five million people are alone I’m told.
Fragile and frightened, forgotten and old.

I wish I could look each one in the eyes
Take hold of their hands make them realize.
Someone is coming to love them – to care.
Someone is coming, yes, do fix your hair.

Get up and get ready.  It is not the end.
Somebody loves you.  You do have a friend.
There is an answer.  We can change each life.
If we match those in need with friends for life.

Working together, we can end the wait.
Help us help them now before it’s too late.

by Inez Russell, Founder, Friends for Life

 ©1991, Friends for Life.

A grant from the city would make all the repairs that she needed for her house, but the contractors refused to do the work unless we would provide an interpreter. Her disease had slowly taken away her ability to speak clearly. The disease had progressed to the point that it seemed impossible to understand anything she said. Fortunately, I had one employee who understood her so we were able to work with contractors to get the work done on her house. We helped her get new ‘slightly used’ furniture to replace the ‘awful’ stuff. I was especially pleased when we were able to replace her dining room suite. It was just a board resting on saw horses. She was so unsteady on her feet that she constantly fell against it and, of course, it would fall and so would she. We found a used dinette set that didn’t fall down when she leaned against it.

One day we told her we would pick her up to take her to buy new shoes. It had been a very long time since she had new shoes and she was very excited. When we got there, she had dozens of tiny cuts on her legs from trying to shave with very unsteady hands.

She loved to go places. When we took her to the doctor, she would ask to ride by the lake. In fact, wherever we took her we had to allow extra time to ride by the lake. She was a bright woman who loved her independence and with our help she was able to stay independent for a very long time – in spite of her illness.

She owed money to loan companies – lots of loan companies. In fact, $390 of her $420 a month income was supposed to go to loan companies. It took us almost two years to help her pay off all her bills, but every loan company was paid. We got a grant for her to fix up her house, including a stove (no more cooking on the space heater). I kneeled down beside her wheel chair one day and she said, “I prayed God would send someone to help me and I know God sent you to me.”