Faithful flock to Graham library, mountain home

A small memorial of flowers quickly sprouted outside the gates of the library, where Graham will be buried next to his wife, Ruth Graham. But most people preferred to walk the grounds and view the exhibits inside.

"I feel that the words of Billy Graham were so connected and a part of my life as a child – for 70 years – how could I not be here?" said Sandra Clory, who said she watched Graham on television growing up in Philadelphia and later sang with his choir during one of his tent revivals in Las Vegas.

"It's like my arm falling off, and I say, 'Oh well,' and just leaving it. He was that much a part of my life, my spirit, my beliefs," Clory said.

Kelly Sullivan brought her 9-year-old son to the library, which will be closed Thursday until March 5 to prepare for Graham's March 2 funeral.

"This is the passing of more than a legend. This is the greatest apostle since the passing of Paul," Sullivan said. "We just don't see people that have preached to so many people and changed so many lives."

While library staff worked to prepare for Graham's funeral – he plans to be buried next to his late wife in a plywood box made by Louisiana prison inmates – visitors focused on the sacredness of their journeys.

"He didn't just say the words. He lived the words," Theresa James said. "That's why I came to give my respects, because he did. He really did."

Graham's legacy may be best realized in the the future of evangelical ministry, a legacy Rev. Ron Barnard, a Wilmington pastor, embraces.

"He held most dear that God loves everyone in every space and season in their lives. He got it from Jesus, and it's certainly something we learn from him as well," Barnard said.

People who visited Montreat in Buncombe County, which Graham called home for some 70 years, expressed similar sentiments, saying he never stopped humbling himself before God despite his worldwide fame.

"I do love this man with all my heart and soul," Inez Wolfe said. "I do miss him, but some day, I'm going to join him."

Wolfe said she viewed Graham as a father figure after losing her own father when she was 11, and she said she has often gone to the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove, a conference center Graham and his wife founded in 1987 near Montreat, to pray and get through difficult times.

Montreat embraced Graham

Graham also found solace in the mountains, where he could retreat from the public spotlight. The town's name is a merger of "mountain" and "retreat."

"It was a refuge. He needed a place to rest and restore and be with family in privacy, and they found it here in Montreat," said Paul Maurer, president of Montreat College.

Graham and his wife, Ruth, were married in the chapel of Montreat College, a private Christian school with about 900 students. He sometimes preached there, and some of his children and grandchildren graduated from the college.

"They were involved in the lives of our students," Maurer said. "They led Bible studies. They were involved in the building of our library, which was named the Bell Library."

Ruth Graham's family name was Bell. Her missionary parents moved the family from China to Montreat.

"It was his imprint, it was Ruth's imprint, and it was his family's imprint. We have a four-generation relationship with the Graham and Bell families," Maurer said.

Graham also left an imprint on Grant Wacker, a professor emeritus at Duke University's Divinity School. Wacker met Graham four times and has written two books about him.

"At first, it was frightening, and I thought, 'Oh gee, I’m going to meet Billy Graham. What will I say?' And his aide said, 'Don’t worry. Billy will know what to say,' and he did. He put us at ease immediately," Wacker recalled Wednesday.

Graham's humility and humor stood out to Wacker.

"The openness surprised me as well. The inclusiveness, the desire to bring people within the range of his message and his personality," he said. "I think his legacy will be the inclusiveness of his understanding of the gospel – bring as many people as possible in as possible. ... What he was very good at was adapting trends of the larger culture and bringing them in and working with those trends and using them to proclaim his message."

Wacker said Graham was prepared for death because of what he felt awaited him.

"He said, 'I’ve always been prepared to die. I haven’t been prepared to get old.' It was that human quality that was very touching," Wacker said. "He was realistic that death is often a painful process. ... but what lies beyond death is what he looked forward to. And especially after he lost his wife, Ruth. He spoke of wanting to be reunited with her."