The Story Inside the Book

Where are you going?

What does this earnest, sweet card

Mean now that she’s gone?

I made that up.

Really. I have no idea what’s going on with this long, mushy message from a 20-year old woman to her mother, sharing memories of drama, reunion, healing, and joy.

I don’t read other people’s mail. Except…

This wasn’t really mail. It was a card stuck inside a book donated to an organization that sends books around the world to schools, libraries, places in desperate and dire need of books.

I wouldn’t have noticed the card at all if it had fit neatly inside the book. Then, it would have been sorted, stamped, and sent on to its next home. Possibly, a volunteer would have noticed the card and pulled it out. Sometimes we do that, pulling out family photos, airline boarding passes, all manner of objects that people use to mark their place in a story.

But this day, I did notice. I did notice and pull out the handmade, heartfelt message. I read it.

Then I wondered. Mother died, estate settled by bored executors with no feelings either way, no connection to a girl who wrote her joy to her mother, anticipating memories they would make that weekend when the mother came down to visit. Girl died, her roommate got rid of her stuff when no one else would. Or, book was lost on the train and a conscientious commuter donated the perfectly clean, current paperback to our organization (this commuter being the honorable, upstanding type who wouldn’t read the card and wonder about its people).

The books that come in to our organization bring their own stories, the stories behind the expected one. I’ve found one-way tickets for flights from somewhere large and lively to somewhere small, hot, and closed such as Los Angeles to Tiny Town, Kansas — cannot imagine a happy story there, but maybe there was a reunion of estranged lovers, not the typical lost job/move home story. I’ve also pulled out pictures of goofy kids planted on Santa’s lap, smiling big for the camera. How did those get lost and found by me sorting books?

Physical, real-world books carry multitudes of stories, the ones intended by the author and the ones created by the reader, the owner, the volunteer who finds a strange bookmark and ponders its meaning.

PS Darien Book Aid Plan was founded in 1947 to promote literacy and education around the world, both in cities close to us as well as the most remote villages thriving in mountains thousands of miles away. The letters that come into us, requesting books and sharing stories, are heartbreaking, moving, and important. It is our honor and joy to respond with the generous gifts from the community and those who share our vision of making the world a better place one book at a time…

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