An Unexpected Friendship
Beginning Again - An Unexpected Friendship
I’d like to share a poem with you — one written by a very talented woman and poet, Betty Anne Galloway, a cum laudegraduate of Bucknell University. After college, Betty Anne faced a difficult time in her life and suffered a mental health crisis that led to her being admitted to Danville State Mental Hospital — one of the last of its kind before many such institutions were closed.
During my chaplain residency there, I had the privilege of getting to know Betty Anne. A few years later, I received a packet in the mail letting me know she had died. She had no family to claim her things, but the nurses who remembered our friendship kindly gathered a few of her personal items and sent them to me.
Among them was a small book of her poetry. From that collection, I’d like to share one of her pieces with you — a poem simply titled “Friend.” Betty Anne was my unexpected friend.
Friend
What is a friend but (s)he who knows
The deepest of our cares and woes
And seeks to ease the weary load
To set one on a smoother road.
Whose hands are always at one’s call
Who loves the joyful overall.
Whose tongue is never sharp or curt
Who understands how not to hurt.
Who seeks all life through our eye’s ways
And never holds back love and praise.
And so my friend accept my thanks
For filling life’s great solemn blanks.