Editing Ruth Graham (section)

==Declining health and death==
{{wikinews|Ruth Bell Graham dies at 87}}
[[Image:Gravestone of Ruth Bell Graham IMG 4206.JPG|200px|right|thumb|Ruth Graham gravestone at Billy Graham Library in [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]], [[North Carolina]]]]
Graham had been in frail health since suffering spinal [[meningitis]] in 1995. This was exacerbated by a degenerative [[osteoarthritis]] of the back and neck that began with a fall while testing a swing she made for her grandchildren in 1974 that resulted in chronic back pain for many years. During the final months of her life, she was bedridden and had contracted [[pneumonia]].<ref name="latimes"/>

The day before Ruth Graham's death, Billy Graham released a statement through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association stating, "Ruth is my soul mate and best friend, and I cannot imagine living a single day without her by my side. I am more and more in love with her today than when we first met over 65 years ago as students at Wheaton College."<ref name="Christianity.com">{{cite web|url=http://christianity.com/Christian%20Foundations/The%20Essentials/11544172/|title=ORuth Bell Graham: A Legacy of Faith|access-date=2007-11-15}}</ref>

On Monday, June 11, at Graham's request and subsequent to consultation with her family, she was removed from life support. On June 13, 2007, following her decline into a semi-coma, her husband announced that he and his wife had decided to be buried beside each other at the [[Billy Graham Library]] in [[Charlotte, North Carolina]].<ref>
{{cite web
  | last =BGEA
  | title = Billy Graham Statement on Selection of Burial Site
  | publisher = Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
  | date = June 14, 2007
  | url =http://bgea.org/mediaRelations/pressReleases.asp?pr=201&src=6
  | access-date = 2007-06-14}}
</ref> She died at 5:05&nbsp;pm. EDT June 14, 2007, at the couple's home, ''Little Piney Cove'', in [[Montreat, North Carolina]], with her husband and five children at her bedside, four days after her 87th birthday.<ref>
{{cite web
 |last        = BGEA
 |title       = Ruth Bell Graham Dies
 |publisher   = Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
 |date        = June 14, 2007
 |url         = http://www.billygraham.org/mediaRelations/pressReleases.asp?pr=203&src=6
 |access-date  = 2007-06-14
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070926221728/http://www.billygraham.org/mediaRelations/pressReleases.asp?pr=203&src=6
 |archive-date = September 26, 2007
}}
</ref> A private ceremony followed by burial on the grounds of the [[Billy Graham Library]] was held on Sunday, June 17, 2007.<ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna19266612 Billy Graham's Wife Buried, nbcnews.com]</ref>

In a statement released from Wheaton College, Duane Litfin, president of the school, remarked, "Strong, steady, and dauntless, Ruth Bell Graham was the glue that held many of the parts of their lives together."<ref>[http://www.christianity.com/Christian%20Foundations/The%20Essentials/11544172/ Ruth Bell Graham: A Legacy of Faith]</ref>