"Old Hank" was the most despised man in the territory. He had lived for years in a lonely cabin on a mountainside with his only companions being five or six vicious dogs. His land was posted and he allowed no one on it. Every week he came to town to buy food and get drunk. He was profane and quarrelsome. All attempts to reason with or change him ended in abuse or a fight. Townsfolk turned against him and he became known as the man everyone hated.

One day the mayor of the Pierce called and asked Cox to hold the funeral service for Old Hank and told him to expect a large crowd at the town hall because a lot of people would be glad to see him buried. Cox asked a local minister to conduct the service and let him know that he would be hard pressed to find something good to say about the man, so to just read some scripture and bury him.

The next day while having lunch at the one restaurant in town, the two men talked with the proprietress and asked if she knew anything good about Old Hank. She looked startled at the question and answered that now he was gone, she could tell his secret.

For years Old Hank had eaten at the restaurant on his weekly trip to town. Each time he left her money with the instruction that she was to keep it and at Christmastime buy gifts for any children who would be likely not to have any. She showed the men $40 in a box and said Old Hank always made it $50 by Christmas.

The town hall was filled that day with the curious. The minister had asked that the children at the school be dismissed to attend. When the children had taken their seats, he began the strangest service that Cox had every seen.

The minister walked to the coffin and began speaking to Old Hank about how many people had come to the service, but none had taken the thought to pick even the lowliest flower for the coffin. He continued that he had never conducted a service where there was not some kind of floral tribute. Then he added that Old Hank had some friends, they just did not know it. The minister then turned to the children and asked if any of them had received a Christmas gift "from an unknown friend" with an envelope attached filled with pennies. Some of the children raised their hands and he asked them to come forward. Twenty-one children came up and stood beside the minister. He told them that Hank had been their "unknown friend". He then asked them to hold hands and make a circle around the casket.

The minister then turned again to the deceased and said, "Hank, you do have some friends here, but they did not know it in time to bring you flowers. Here then, is a wreath of the loveliest flowers that grow in the garden of God - the very children you made happy." With that tribute, the minister commended the man's soul to God who made it with a final "Amen".

Cox concluded the story saying that it was the undertaker's duty to take charge of the service as soon as the minister said "Amen", but he stood there weeping with the rest as they looked into the faces of Old Hank's floral tribute - a wreath of children.

Reprinted from 2008