Books and Memorial Service

This past Saturday I attended Edna's memorial service. Edna was a neighbor, friend and a fellow book lover.

I first met Edna about 17 years ago while attending a Friends of the Library booksale at  my local library. Year before I met Edna, she and her husband had been the founding members of our local Friends of the Library group. When I met Edna, the friends group was already organizing monthly booksales and generating a nice income for the friends.
Edna encouraged me to volunteer and told that I could bring my young daughter with me. That is how my volunteering with the local friends group started. Edna was always there--sometimes with even a walker when walking was difficult. She always smiled! She was patient with us volunteers who sometimes had ideas that did not mesh with hers. Edna never minded my daughter sitting on the floor while I was organizing books or cleaning selves. Maybe this is one of the reasons my daughter grew up admiring Edna as well.
Edna was involved in many other ways in our community as well, but I will always remember Edna and her books. She was always reading. She knew so much about books! And after a career at a university library, she still had the passion to volunteer, and make sure books got "recycled" in the right way while at the same time raising money for our local library.
Edna is gone, but her legacy will live in our community and in our lives. Because of Edna and the other founding members, our local friends of the library group now operates an actual bookstore at our library! It is staffed with volunteers and open daily! I have the privilege of volunteering there once a week and I love it!
Edna, you will be missed!