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with old Jeannie Lawson, apostolic missionary,
she opened The Inn of Sixth Happiness,
a haven for random journeymen,
cats, tramps, and converts.
She entertained fireside guests
with the Gospels in Chinese
as if recounting sumptuous folk tales.
A hundred times in danger every day,
she yet found time to water flowers,
confronting prison conditions and
attending birds simultaneously.
Adopting – rescuing – hundreds of oprhans,
she made it out over the mountains.
For her great deeds
the Chinese named her
艾偉德
–
Virtuous, Honorable.
Half a century on, in Hollywood’s gilded teapot,
Ingrid Bergman, she of heart shaped lips
and overly silky shoes
portrayed this short, untidy Gladys,
as leading the bound and tortured Chinese
into Heaven.