November, 1972

I didn’t have a diary entry for meeting Ronnie. I hadn’t really started writing regularly. But I still remember it well. It was sometime towards Thanksgiving, a gray November day, toward evening perhaps. Maybe the center was open. Anyway, the door bell rang, and I went downstairs to answer it. When I opened the door, there at the bottom of the steps stood this slender, good-looking youth with beautiful brown eyes, wearing a cap and a trench coat, smiling confidently up at me, full of life and color in the grayness of November. He looked at me a little curiously for a second

“Is Barb in?” He asked courteously.

I think Barb came to the door just then and said in a loud voice, “Ronnie Williams! It’s good to see you! I haven’t seen you in ages, come in! Greg, look who’s here!”

Then I realized he was Greg’s fourteen-year-old cousin who used to live here and left shortly after I came on summer staff. Darn. He seemed so much older!

They went up to visit in Barb’s office. Here’s the way the rowhouse was laid out. Street, sidewalk, porch steps, hallway, stairs to first story, hallway, Barb’s office, my bedroom. My bedroom opened up into Barb’s office, so I had to walk through the office to get to my room. Nobody seemed to notice me much. I was getting ready to go teach an evening Bible Study. I put on this crimson pant suit, slightly flared, and tied my hair back with a red scarf. When I stepped back out into the office, I saw Ronnie’s eyes widen and travel the length of me, taking me in. I quickly looked down.

All I can say is that when I got back from the Bible Study that evening around 9:00 or so, I was glad to find him still there.And I was glad he was there the next day. And the next. And so the story goes. I was very drawn to him - he tugged at my heart strings. Trying to put together how someone so winsome had survived circumstances so hard. You just wanted to make things better for him. I guess it was one of those doomed love at first sight things. I know it profoundly changed my view of the world I lived in - through him I fell in love with the city of Philadelphia - It was like I was really seeing the streets, the people for the first time, but through his eyes. And it was really captivating and fascinating.