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Ruthie’s Louisiana Saturday Night

From The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming, this account of the fundraising concert her friends threw for her one night in April, 2010. That clip above is David Morgan, her Starhill neighbor, leading his band at the show — which, yes, was on a Saturday night: I met a woman who traveled from Houston, six […]

From The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming, this account of the fundraising concert her friends threw for her one night in April, 2010. That clip above is David Morgan, her Starhill neighbor, leading his band at the show — which, yes, was on a Saturday night:

I met a woman who traveled from Houston, six hours away, for this concert. Ruthie had taught her children when they lived in town, and had meant the world to them.

“We love her so much,” the woman said. “She has given so much to our family. We couldn’t not be here.”

I kept hearing this over and over that night: We had to be here. The most touching stories came from people whom Ruthie had taught, or whose kids she had taught. Ruthie disappeared at one point to go rest and get oxygen, attended by Dr. Tim Lindsey. David Fournet, an old classmate of hers, stopped me, upset that she might have left before he was able to say hello. “You see her, you tell her I love her. Because I do!” he said, fighting back tears.

I watched a man who barely knew our family paying for hot dogs with a hundred-dollar bill, and saying, “Keep the change.” My mother observed one woman from a poor family at the show. “I know how little they have,” Mam said, “and they still came to give to Ruthie.” Members of the Baton Rouge Fire Department showed up en masse as a sign of respect for Mike.

It was an evening of beer drinking, country dancing, and merry-making, the likes of which there had been far too little of since that awful day in February. For Ruthie, this was an It’s a Wonderful Life moment as the people of the parish took the opportunity to show her and tell her what a difference she had made in their lives. At the end of the evening, over a thousand people had come through the gates, and the people of our little country parish had raised forty-three thousand dollars for Ruthie Leming. “This is how it’s supposed to be,” an old friend said to me that night, looking out over the crowd. “This is what folks are supposed to do for each other.”

Hey Washington, DC, and northern Virginia, I’ll be reading from Little Way and signing books at the Barnes & Noble in Tysons Corner, starting at 7pm tonight. Am I coming to your town on this book tour? Find out on RodDreher.net — and check in there to drop me a note and to read what others have been saying about Little Way.

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