In the journey of life, we each encounter role models who quietly shape our hearts. For me, one of those figures has long been Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of Reverend Billy Graham. When she passed away last month (June 14) at the age of 87, I felt not sorrow, but a desire to rise in joyful applause—witnessing the victory of a beautiful life well lived.

I have always respected Ruth Bell Graham because of the quietness within her, her simplicity and humility, and the spaciousness of faith she carried so openly.

As we know, her childhood was far from easy. Born to Dr. Nelson Bell, a medical missionary in China, she spent her early years in China and Pyongyang, Korea. As a child, she was often mocked by Chinese children as a “foreign ghost” and even spat upon. Her parents lived under constant threat—amid political unrest, looting, and danger to life. They endured 25 years of medical mission work in China, protecting their children from kidnappers seeking ransom.

Ruth grew up dreaming of becoming a missionary to Tibet. But after meeting Billy Graham in college and marrying him, she accepted the traditional role of a pastor’s wife—not out of resignation, but as God’s calling.

She was always honest and sincere. When asked how she endured loneliness during her husband’s frequent evangelistic travels, she once said, “I sleep holding his jacket.” She raised five children mostly on her own, and when one daughter became pregnant as a teenager, she wrestled with exhaustion and heartbreak, seeking God’s goodness in the midst of it.

She once recommended that every parent read at least one book on dog training. She said, “Good parents have good children. No good parent ever taught their child to do wrong. But having a prodigal child simply means they didn’t turn out as taught. We must understand how even the Lord struggles with His children.”

Just as Billy Graham learned of God through nature on a farm in North Carolina, Ruth too responded sensitively to God’s hand moving through creation. Her soul was always climbing mountains, never taking her eyes off the divine power moving through everyday life. The weary life of an evangelist found renewed strength beside such a wife—enough to go out again and fulfill his calling.

Ruth Bell Graham’s final resting place was a simple wooden coffin made by Richard Liggett, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in Louisiana. Richard had accepted Christ during his 31 years in prison and passed away from cancer in March. Seeing her remains laid in that humble coffin, I was reminded of the line, “There are moments when a person appears as clear as the sky.” Ruth’s life—guarded in prayer and shaped by grace—washes over my soul like summer rain after a long drought.