“…fly back out into the world”

It was standing room only for Jon’s talk at the Connecticut Library Association in Hartford.    And a terrific talk it was about, books and blogs and publishing.  There were lots of smart questions and oo’s and ah’s over Jon’s photos which were projected on a screen behind him.   I wasn’t  actually standing, but  sitting on the floor with a few other people.  The woman sitting next to me pointed at the screen when the photo of Flo sitting on the porch rocker peeking out from behind one of the Vintage Hankies that was hanging on the line, came up.   She told me the hankie had belonged to Gail’s mom.

Gail was the person who arranged for Jon to speak at the Library Association, but I didn’t connect her name with the woman who gave me her mother’s hankies.  It all came back to me when Gail reminded me that I made her a scarf.  At home  I found the note that Gail sent me when she mailed her Mom’s hankies.  “Like you, I love to see these old things fly back out into the world”  she wrote.

This was something I never expected.  I was happy enough just to go with Jon to Connecticut, listen to his talk and have room service deliver breakfast in the morning.   But now I had the opportunity to get to know Gail a bit.  She gave me some more of her mom’s hankies and linens and we talked about Sue  Monk Kidd’s  book  The Invention of Wings.   I gave her ” The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin a truly wonderful book, about books, that I just finished reading this morning.

I felt nourished as we drove home.  Between the enthusiasm over Jon’s talk, the way people stopped to pet Red, meeting Gail and her friends, and just getting away for the night, I felt a little lighter.  Maybe because I had no expectations for the trip, or maybe it’s that Librarians are nurturing by nature and being around a bunch of them just feels good.