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CHARLOTTE — With silver hair and vivid memories, the faithful are coming to the Billy Graham Library to relive the glory.

For thousands of elderly people, a visit to the library has become something of a pilgrimage. They are coming from across the country, not just to celebrate the life of the ailing 89-year-old Graham but also to relive a seminal part of their own faith journeys.

Since opening with great fanfare last spring — former presidents George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton joined a noticeably fragile Graham in speaking at an invitation-only ceremony — the library has drawn more than 130,000 visitors.

Library officials do not track attendance by visitors' ages. But as buses from churches and nursing homes pull up and people walk gingerly down the steps it is obvious the library is attracting an older crowd.

Linda Sutton, who helps coordinate volunteers, said her staff loves helping older people, who spend an average of one to two hours touring the library. And, she added, "We're so thrilled when we see a group of kids on a school group come through."

The minister's elder son, Franklin Graham, who runs the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, said the library's goal is not to glorify his father or the stadium-style revivals where he preached to 215 million people over more than a half-century. Instead, the library is meant to serve as an evangelical tool.

"We want this not to be a memorial to Billy Graham or something that promotes the successes of his life," he said. "We want it to point to Jesus Christ."

Franklin Graham, 55, said comment cards left by visitors indicated that many were touched by what they saw. One woman, he said, wrote that she had spent the last of her four hours at the library listening to hymns piped in to a prayer garden and reading Scripture.

Visitors seem especially moved by the grave of Ruth Bell Graham, Billy Graham's wife, who died in June at age 87. She is buried about 50 yards from the giant cross-shaped window that has become the library's trademark.

Her gravestone, inspired by a road sign she spotted years ago, declares, "End of Construction — Thank you for your patience." She was always the family cutup.

A spot beside her is saved for Graham, who underwent surgery last month to have a valve in his brain shunt replaced. He lives out of the limelight in Montreat in the mountains. His last crusade, in New York in June 2005, drew 90,000 to the World's Fair grounds in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens.

It's no surprise that the library attracts an older crowd. To 20-somethings, Graham is a barely known figure seen mostly on the occasional television clip from an old crusade.

But to older Christians, the library offers a fresh chance to embrace the evangelist who touched them long ago.

Lynn Lytle, 65, of Matthews remembers the day in 1960 when Graham spoke at her baccalaureate graduation service at Old Fort High School in the mountains. There were 60 in her class. He preached about the need for them to follow Christ. She listened.

"He was a rugged, handsome man," Lytle said. "There was a lot of fire in his preaching."

Clyde Masten, 80, a retired Baptist preacher, and his wife, Shirley, were headed north from a vacation in Lake Worth, Fla., when they pulled off the highway to see the library.

Masten attended Graham's 1953 crusade in St. Louis and the 1967 crusade in Kansas City, Mo.

He smiles at the memory. "Time flies when you're having fun," he said.

For 74-year-old Doris Gordon of Mullica Hill, N.J., recollections of Graham are not unlike the hundreds of old photographs of Billy Graham crusades that she and her husband, Charles, spent a winter's morning studying: grainy, slightly faded, but as clear as yesterday in her mind.

Gordon was one of the half million people who packed Billy Graham's 1961 crusade in Philadelphia. Nearly a half century later, three things about the experience have stayed with her: She rode a bus to the meetings. He preached on the need for sinners to repent.

"And you know what?" she added, smiling at the recollection. "Every seat was full."

Sutton, 63, helps schedule the 220 volunteers who greet library visitors. When there is a lull, she will make her way to the lobby to one of the hundreds of photographs that tell the Billy Graham story. She points out one from his 1958 crusade in the old Charlotte Coliseum. The photograph tells Linda Sutton's story, too.

There she is in the middle of the black-and-white picture. She is sitting beside her grandmother Delia Sisk. Sutton admits that her head resting on her hand was a sign she was ready to go home. "Don't you know, I was 14," she said.

A half century later, she stares at that photograph and sees Billy Graham for what he is to her: the thread that runs through her life.

"I'm thinking," she said, "some 50 years ago, the Lord knew I was going to be standing here today looking at this picture."