William Helms: “none of us knows precisely when the hereafter begins, when the life of one of the Lord's servants ends. I myself have…”

“none of us knows precisely when the hereafter begins, when the life of one of the Lord's servants ends. I myself have lost an unusually large number of good friends during the past few weeks. But I find it helpful to imagine that I can visualize each of them sitting on some sort of Cloud Nine up there, listening to those of us who are mourning the loss of good friends. Yes, I do have a hunch that Paul Coverdell is up there, cheerfully and busily lending a hand to Saint Peter. For me, it serves the purpose of reassuring that Paul is all right--in fact, better off than he has ever been before. We all remember a hundred different personal vignettes at times like this. In Paul's case, my first acquaintance with him was very early in the morning the day after he was first elected to the Senate in 1992. I had gone quietly into the den of our Raleigh home and turned on the television set--the volume very low, so as not to awaken Mrs. Helms. I wanted to catch up on the late returns from the election the day before. I heard a voice; and I was intrigued and impressed by that voice. Then I looked carefully. I did not recognize the young man who was speaking. It was Paul Coverdell. I saw the picture of him that appeared on the screen. It was a live interview. Paul had not yet gone to bed. He had been up for about 36 or 40 hours. There he was fielding questions politely, intelligently, and with that inevitable smile on his face.…”