Footprints author in Calgary
by Cindy Stephen

It was August 7, 1989 when Margaret Fishback-Powers watched her daughter go over a 60 foot waterfall. Her husband Paul suffered a heart attack while trying to save her. It was a time when Fishback-Power’s own words in her immortal poem Footprints, came back to offer comfort and support to the family.

Margaret Fishback-Powers was in Calgary November 12 to support NeighbourLink Calgary, addressing an over capacity crowd at the Starfish Café in the Calgary Dream Centre, sharing her story behind the much loved poem and how it has blessed her life, and the lives of millions. She spoke of that time in 1989 when both her daughter and husband were in hospital, neither aware of the other’s condition. Paul was heavily sedated and a nurse came into the room telling him that she had something to share with him to give him comfort. She read the last stanza of Footprints to him, and through his stupor, he told the nurse that his wife had written the piece. The nurse just smiled, figuring he’d had too much medication.

The poem, Footprints, was originally entitled I Had a Dream, written on Thanksgiving weekend in 1964 at Echo Lake Camp in Kingston, Ontario. It was the weekend Paul Powers had proposed to the diminutive red-head, and the pair had strolled along the beach discussing the future and watching their footprints being washed away behind them as they walked.

"When we’re married," Paul had said to her at that time, "and we can’t help each other, the Lord will carry us and never leave us."

NeighbourLink’s Walter Twiddy with author Margaret Fishback-Powers. — photo by Cindy Stephens

She was unable to sleep the night after that walk, and took pen to paper to write down the words that she felt the Lord was giving her. The next day, she gave the poem to Paul, and when they were married one year later, it had a special place in their wedding album. In 1966, the couple formed the Little People’s Ministry Association and worked closely with World Vision. Fishback-Powers continued her career as a teacher and writer, meticulously cataloguing well over 16,000 pieces of inspirational writings. In 1980 the pair moved from Toronto to the West Coast. Along the way, six cartons of her life’s work were lost. "I waited for three years for them to find my things, and then the moving company went out of business," she said. Then in 1983, she discovered that her poem I Had a Dream was being printed by a US publishing company as Footprints, by an anonymous author. This led to a four year copyright battle, because two others had stepped forward claiming ownership. Today, Fishback-Powers is considered the true author of Footprints, which is well known around the world and has been translated into 30 languages.

"People ask me if I’m amazed and I say, ‘Yes I am,’" she said. "God has preserved my life many times. I’ve been struck by lightning, twice, so I know how much He loves me."

Fishback-Powers signed copies of her book Footprints: The True Story Behind The Poem That Inspired Millions at the luncheon, organized by NeighbourLink, a Calgary agency that pools resources of local churches to help those in need. Walter Twiddy, a former pastor and Executive Director of NeighbourLink chose the Footprints theme for this first annual event, because of the help NeighbourLink provides for people who can’t make it on their own strength.

"We mobilize our churches to be the hands and feet of Christ," said Twiddy.

Margaret Fishback-Powers applauded the work of NeighbourLink, and said that churches helping in their neighbourhoods is a very old tradition.

She concluded her time in Calgary on November 13th with a visit to Brentwood Baptist Church.