Yesterday, walking into my critique group meeting, I read a newspaper article about a young paramedic who was killed in a local road crash. She had the same last name as a librarian casual friend, so I did a Google search, hoping to discover the paramedic was not my friend’s daughter. I was shocked to discover that not only was the young woman her daughter, but that my librarian friend herself died this past summer of cancer.
We only saw or contacted each other once or twice a year, but she was just a joyous person. She loved poetry and had shared some of hers with me. She shared my picture books with her students when she taught pre-service librarians. She loved books and kids and libraries. When I presented at her library a couple of years ago, it was clear that she lit the place up every day.
It made me think of all those people who we see or talk with only rarely, and yet they are a part of what we see as “the world.” A good part. It’s painful to lose them and to have been unaware of their passing. So, here’s a #poemsketch in her honor. Even though she wasn’t a school librarian most recently, I pictured a student at the start of the school year making his or her first trip to the media center, only to discover that favorite librarian was no longer there.
2 Responses
How sad. Their family must be wondering why they had to lose two so close together before what we’d consider “their times”. I am always unsettled when I find that a star has dropped from the sky, and the world has grown just a bit darker without my knowledge. Thanks for sharing this special dedication to your friend today.
Thanks, Donna. I feel so sad for the remaining daughter, who has lost both mom and only sibling in six months.