“Frozen Feet, Warming Heart,” Ensign, Dec. 1973, 15
Frozen Feet, Warming Heart
It was very cold that year in Marseilles. There was ice everywhere. I was returning, heavily laden from shopping, when I saw two Algerian girls, one about 18 years old and the other about 13. The little one had only summer slippers on and her feet were red with cold.
I could not resist the desire to help, so I approached her and said, “I have some shoes that are in good condition, but I don’t know who to give them to. I will give them to you if you’d like to have them.”
She couldn’t believe her ears. “Will you really give them to me? You mean, now?”
I told her yes, and the two accompanied me to my house. She tried on the shoes, and they fitted her well. She warmed herself for a moment by the stove and admired my Christmas tree. “It’s the most beautiful I have ever seen.”
Her sincerity went straight to my heart. We talked like old friends about the traditions of Christianity and Islam, and at that moment there was no longer anything but sisterhood among three people so different in race and religion. We were three children of God, and nothing more.