In Which I Find Out That a Young Library Patron Values Me More than I Realized.

Yesterday a grandmother came to tell me her family will soon be moving to Everett and that Joey, aged about 8, doesn't want to move because he won't be able to visit me at the library.  She has promised him they will come once a week to see me.

Have I helped Joey find many library materials? No.  Have I been present with him and and admired the notes and pictures he makes for me on the little library "p-slips" every time he comes in?  Yes.  Do we have a relationship?  Oh, yes!

And Joey told his grandmother that I am fun.  (As I get older, I am getting to be more and more about having fun! And I guess it shows!)

This family has been through a lot in the past year--unemployment, the sudden and unexpected death of Joey's aunt and so much more.

When I mentioned how well the grandmother was doing in the wake of her daughter's death, she told me she was going to grief counseling which she found through resources I gave her.

The grandmother said I had found a niche, no, I had found a calling in how I am a librarian.

The more I travel this road, the more I realize that I am here to support and encourage people in who they are becoming, by being a companion in their search for whatever brings them to the library.

I am honored and humbled that I can be an unknown blessing to others just by being myself.