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Friends United Meeting |
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Quaker Life
May 2003
I Want to Thank You
Poem by Tom Baugh, White Oak Cottage
Stooped with the dignity of age,
black, with hair white and brilliant by contrast,
he smiled, nodded and took a seat among us.
We knew he was a stranger to our small gathering,
for we are all white.
He sat with us in the silence and toward the end of Meeting
cleared his throat and said, "I've come to thank you.
I'm the pastor of..." and he mentioned a nearby African American
church, "and I've come to thank you," he repeated.
He paused and told us, "I've come to thank you and your foreparents
for what they did for my people."
He seemed to straighten with the message and, responding to his Leading,
continued.
"I've driven past your church so many times. Quakers, yes Quakers.
And I remember what you did for us."
" I remember your help in raising us up from slavery and I've just
come to thank you."
I stared straight ahead.
And, as he continued to offer his thanks in dignified and measure words,
tears began to form in the corner of my eyes.
Beside me, my wife of a lifetime sighed, her own eyes moist, then running.
We were not alone of those touched
in Meeting as the old man continued with his litany of praise for Quaker
schools, and Quaker assistance, and blacks
who could read and write.
"And I have come here to sit in the silence and to pray and to meditate
and to thank you and to thank your foreparents,"
he said, "I've come to thank the Quakers."
He left soon after that, walking slowly to his car, looking at his watch. He had a congregation to care for and he was obviously late.
I couldn't help but think that as he rose in his own pulpit and looked
out over a sea of expectant faces, he might pause and say to them,
"I stopped for a moment on my way here this morning. I stopped for
a moment to thank the Quakers."
[Ed. Note: This event occurred at Chattanooga Friends Meeting, Tennessee.]
Copyright (c) 2003 Friends United Meeting
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