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Patricia Harper-Pollard brings her late husband's artwork to The Hills Church in Fort Worth for the launch of the book 'You Visited Me.' (Marissa Greene | Fort Worth Report)

In 2011, Patricia Harper-Pollard walked into Sunday school at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio with a coffee cup and a smile. She didn’t know that the tall man sitting in the back of the class would end up being her future husband. 

The chance meeting would propel Patricia into a two-year book publishing process, documenting her husband’s poems that he wrote when learning about his relationship with Christianity in prison. Patricia now hopes for people to purchase the book and share them with incarcerated loved ones. 

Patricia had been married before. After divorcing her first husband in 2004, she was motivated to focus on her faith as a nondenominational Christian, Patricia said. But as she got to know more about Freeman Pollard, the man she met that day, she became enamored by his love for God. 

The book cover for “You Visited Me,” is a print of a painting done by Freeman Pollard. (Marissa Greene | Fort Worth Report)

“I wanted to be with this person who loved Christ more than he loved me, and that meant he would love me like Christ loved the church,” Patricia said. 

Freeman loved to cook, fish and read the Bible — the King James Version specifically, Patricia said. 

Patricia and Freeman married June 24, 2012, inside the walls of Lyle Street Church Of Christ in Big Sandy, a town two hours east of Fort Worth. 

“One of the things he said to me is that my peace has rested on you,” Patricia said. “That was kind of how it happened and then we were inseparable after that.” 

Peace didn’t come easy to Freeman. Originally from South Florida, he and his family grew up in poverty, and he committed his first robbery between the ages of 11 and 12 and continued to do so, according to his journal entry in the “You Visited Me” book. 

“Now, I know you might not understand if you’ve never been in this place before, but crime sometimes derives from dealing with everyday issues of life.”

Freeman Pollard in “You Visited Me”

Freeman Pollard spent 16.7 years in prisons in Florida and other facilities across the U.S. During his time as an inmate, he began to read and study the Bible, Patricia said. Freeman documented his journey of finding faith within cell walls through poetry and paintings. 

“He understood repentance and he understood that he didn’t want to do those things anymore,” Patricia said. 

In 2017, Freeman and Patricia moved to Fort Worth to be closer to family. A year later, they started a nonprofit organization called Real Prison Ministry, a seven-week Christian Bible-study program Freeman wrote out of inspiration from his own struggles of trying to understand other Bible-study programs. 

Freeman’s hope was that by writing a Bible-study program as a previous incarcerated person, other incarcerated people would be able to follow with ease,  Patricia said. The Bible study walks through repentance, salvation, faith, baptism and the Bible. The studies are available for existing prison and jail ministries to reach out to Patricia to use. 

“The Bible study materials are hopefully going to be in every prison ministry and facility possible,” Patricia said.  

Saying goodbye

One day in 2021, when Texas was blanketed in ice and snow, Freeman woke up with breathing issues. After a trip to the hospital, Patricia said goodbye to Freeman in the same position that she was in when she met him — in search of God.

Freeman passed away Feb. 23, 2021, from a blood clot that reached an artery in his heart. That night, Patricia returned home, alone and sleeping in the same bed where she and her husband woke up that morning. 

“So where we were laying in the bed still smelled like him. I could still smell him,” Patricia said. 

After he passed away, Patricia discovered poems on her husband’s phone, documenting his thoughts and feelings toward his faith from when he was an inmate to three days before he passed. 

“Don’t want no diamonds or no glass, for those were things that were in my past. Just one thing, please let me see the One who died to rescue me.”

Freeman Pollard in “You Visited Me”

For the past two years, Patricia has been collecting her late husband’s paintings and poems into a book called “You Visited Me.” The title nods to Matthew 25:36, a verse in the Bible, King James Version translation, that says “Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.” 

On June 24, 2023, Patricia  had a launch event for the book inside The Hills Church, a nondenominational Christian church located in West Fort Worth. The day of the launch also marked Patricia and Freeman’s 12-year anniversary wedding anniversary.

“Even though my physical husband is gone, my spiritual husband stays here,” Patricia said. 

During the event she shared her story with her husband, his Bible studies that she hopes to share with other prison ministries and testimonies from her husband’s friends. Patricia asked the audience to purchase books to share with incarcerated loved ones. She also pitched her late husband’s seven-week Bible study class, in hopes that Real Prison Ministry will partner with existing prison or jail ministries in Texas and America.  

Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter at @marissaygreene. 

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Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member and covers faith in Tarrant County for the Fort Worth Report. Greene got her start in journalism at Austin Community College, where she spearheaded the...