Away from the office for a week, I expected as I returned this morning the usual piles of mail and miscellaneous reports needing attention.  Included in the mail was an anonymous letter, which I began to read with the natural trepidation that accompanies the opening of unsigned correspondence.  This letter was from a person who signed, simply, “a grandma.”  She wrote to me to of her appreciation for Samford, with particular gratitude for the attention to her grandson by one of our faculty member.  “Mark my words,” she wrote, “these professors are very influential to these students.”  Her grandson “has been greatly impacted by the words of one . . . of his professors.”  “I don’t know the name of the specific individual.  To him, and for that matter, all of them, I want to say thanks.  You have won a grandmother’s heart.”

Her concluding paragraph:  “I’m sure he (my grandson) would be embarrassed to know that I have sent this letter; thus, his identity will remain undisclosed.  But at age 75, I think I have earned the privilege to encourage you and the generation we love so dearly.  We have the privilege to pass on the baton, and thank you once again for taking up that challenge and going forth.”

The world is better because of a grandmother’s heart—and the meaningful ways in which her heart was won by the competence, compassion and wisdom of Samford faculty.