Think About It: Helen Kopp, a friend extraordinaire.

“Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.” — Plautus

Ever since Evie and I came to Phoenixville nearly 20 years ago we have had the privilege of meeting a host of remarkable men and women. Some of those who have inspired us the most have been the alums of the University of Valley Forge.

Today I want to tell you about one of those alums, Helen Kopp ’47. I actually don’t remember exactly when or where I first met her but I do know it was somewhere within our early years of being at UVF. By then she had already retired as a missionary to Africa. And because she lived about an hour from Phoenixville in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, it was possible for her to return from time to time to her alma mater.

The reason I describe Helen Kopp as “a friend extraordinaire” is because of the remarkable commitment she made to me during one of our earliest times together. She was here on campus with some of her friends when I shared with them that I spoke in the UVF chapel about once a month (eight times a year).

Later, she came privately to me and told me she would make it a priority to pray for me at the exact time I spoke, each time I spoke. Little did I know then how faithful she would be over the following years.

From that point on I had my administrative assistant let her know my speaking schedule to help her with this personal and unsolicited priority. One time she was even on a bus tour with friends and, as she mentioned in a note to me, they stopped in Wheeling, West Virginia, right around the time I was speaking during chapel. While everyone was getting off the bus, she gently asked if she could stay in her seat for a bit longer. During that time she prayed yet again for me and our chapel service before she rejoined her friends.

In addition to this amazing personal commitment over the years, Helen also wrote me nearly 100 letters and cards. I have kept them all. In some of them she enclosed interesting articles on everything from covered bridges in Lancaster County to a newspaper article on student protests at Millersville University.

In most of them she included one of her beautiful photo cards. And because Helen is also quite a wordsmith, most of her pictures were of flowers and inside the card she wrote an original poem about that flower. Inside the rhododendron picture she wrote, “If I were asked to judge the flowers, and pick the best of show; I’d name the rhododendron, would you agree ‘tis so?” She then added, “gets your eye and your aye, doesn’t it?”

Inside a card with a picture of a rose she wrote a poem titled “Thank You”: “Say it with roses, and you say it well; Yes, more eloquently than the tongue can tell.”

Her love of birds came through in a poem about a beautiful blue jay. The poem is titled “The Birds” and reads, “God created the birds of the air, feathering them in colors so fair; Then, filling their breasts with songs of delight, How can we praise Him, try though we might.”

But it was her words about my chapel messages that always meant the most to me. In addition to letting her know when I spoke, I always had an audio tape or CD sent to her a day or so after each message. Her gracious comments regarding something I said which impacted her life or how she felt must have impacted the lives of our precious students always inspired me to keep on keeping on.

As I prepared this column I returned to my file overflowing with handwritten treasures from Helen’s heart.

Yes, indeed. Helen Kopp is a friend extraordinaire.

Think about it.