Recently I received some sad news. The Children’s Librarian that I had known for the totality of my childhood had passed away. She was an incredible woman. She loved books and she loved children.
When I had the chance to go to the viewing I could have gone with the rest of the staff at the library but I chose to go by myself. This was a private thing for me. A private grief. For you see, she is the reason I’m a librarian today. I didn’t want to share my thoughts and feelings with the world on this but perhaps it is helping me process my own grief and helping me to see how I became the woman I am today.
As a child I didn’t have many friends. There weren’t kids in my neighborhood to play with. There weren’t people inviting me over all the time. But there were books.
When I was in first grade my parents taught me the route to the library on my bike and I got my first library card. My summers were filled up with getting HUGE piles of books from the library, taking them home, reading all day, and going back two days later to return them for more books.
My mother used to make me play outside for an hour a day and I dreaded it, until I started taking books outside to read. These books were my world. I was no longer lonely as I read about the children in Wayside School. I was no longer lonely as I read and reread the Arthur books and imagined myself as one of his friends. The Berenstain Bears chapter books were new worlds to me! I could be a detective and someone who was bravely exploring new things!
These books saved me from my loneliness. And these books never would have made it to me if it weren’t for this woman at the library. She was always glad to see me. She called me by name. She handed me books into new worlds. She invited me to come to the programming. She let me know I was wanted. I could sit and read or talk to her, and talk I did- that poor woman, but I was never unwanted. I was never a burden to her.
I had never really considered it before she passed away but I think she’s a big part of the reason I’m a book lover today. I think she’s the reason childhood wasn’t so lonely and so hard. She helped me to see the bigger world and helped me to find the place I belonged in it.
So thank you my dear librarian. Thank you for the legacy you left for me. Thank you for allowing me to step into a position you once held and continue on your legacy. Thank you for saving me from my own loneliness.
You will be forever missed.
Keep Sparkling,
B
The Sparkling Librarian 