Ailing evangelist Billy Graham said Monday he and his wife Ruth are deciding together where they will be buried, an announcement apparently sparked by a recent report the family is feuding over the issue.

“That determination will not be made by our family, our organization or outsiders, but will be ours alone,” Graham, 88, said in a statement released by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Graham said he and Ruth Graham “have no disagreement about our future, for we know that after we each take our last breath on earth we will be together in heaven.”

A friend of mine says Graham is deciding with his son Franklin by making the above statement.

Given what Billy Graham believes the key phrase that caught his attention was ‘be together in heaven.’ And his question is also mine, “why not make his wife happy?”

I initially read it as he was going to honour Ruth’s wishes and be buried beside her in the mountains instead of the organization’s er, library.

But reading it carefully his statement is not a statement of decision.

The Washington Post had a story last week about the discussion and tug of war regarding the family wishes. Franklin Graham issued a react statement that afternoon, spent a couple of paragraphs going on about what the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association wanted with the library below and one paragraph about his mom and dad.

Being the cynic I am, and knowing life doesn’t have happy endings I think the decision was made, signed and stuck in a lawyers safe some time ago.  The question for me is more, ‘Will the Association relent and allow her to be buried where she wishes?’