One of my very favorite things in life is to talk to people about books. I am always shocked when I meet somebody who doesn’t like to read ~ how is that even possible? There are books in this world about EVERYTHING!! Barry’s grandmother loved to read and whenever I went to her house, I always noticed that she had a magnet on her fridge from the public library reminding her when things were due. I loved knowing that somewhere, nestled in her home, was a stack of things that she’d checked out from the library.
The thing about Grandmother and being a reader, was that she was pretty much blind due to macular degeneration, the same condition that affects my Grandma Elvrum, also an avid reader. Luckily for Grandmother, nearly every single book ever written has been transferred to CD and she continued to ‘read’ books on tape. We’d talk from time to time about different books that we’d both read and authors that we enjoyed.
She once mentioned to Barry that she had some books that my grandma might want to listen to and that we should stop by and pick them up. We eventually got around to visiting the Valley, and it turned out there were roughly 50 books on tape, a humongous box of organized burned CDs containing books about anything and everything. As we loaded them into the car, I asked Barry’s grandmother if she wanted them back and she responded that she’d listened to them all. I loved thinking of her ‘reading’ so many of the same books that I’d read….should have invited her to bookgroup!
When I dropped the gigantic box off at my grandma’s house, I think Grandma Elvrum almost burst into tears, she was so excited to have so many books to listen to. As I read off the titles to my grandma, I couldn’t help but find joy in knowing that I was sheparding books from Barry’s nearly blind grandmother to my nearly blind grandmother.
Barry’s grandmother passed away today, and I’d like to think she’s somewhere reading every single word of a book, with a beer in her hand….because Grandmother liked beer too, but that’s another story.
*THIS is a good read as well.
