Illustration: Pastoral Care

After leaving the White House, Harry Truman retired to Independence, Missouri. He decided to make a road trip from there to Washington, D.C., and New York by car. He was traveling without security or escort—just the President and Mrs. Truman. On June 21, 1953, he arrived in Frostburg, Maryland. While having lunch at the Princess Diner, a local Democratic Party leader came by their table and asked the President if he would be willing to visit his elderly bedridden mother who recently had broken her hip. He said she had been a Democrat for 92 years and was pretty sick. Truman went—two miles from town. Truman said, "We had a nice chat. That little detour may not sound like much, but it was the high point of our whole motor trip." On that trip he would have lunch with 44 senators at the Capitol, have lunch in New York with the editor of Life magazine and visit the United Nations; but the high point was that chat with a 92-year-old invalid. Preachers, church leaders and members should remember how precious the time is that we spend with those who are in need.