My Grandmother: A Library Lover and an Amazing Lady
by Jaclyn Hall 
Coming from a father who wanted a boy named William Henry, but instead was blessed with a little baby girl he begrudgingly named Willamita Henrietta, my grandmother's troubles began at birth. Billie, the name my grandmother legally changed as her own as soon as she was of age to do so, was born in London, England our lord's year 1921. Upon turning the delicate age of nine, Billie delighted with her family as they rode the big, blue Atlantic on their way to America's fortunes.
However, being the year was 1930, the un-fortunes of the Great Depression met them at the dock and forever shaped their American lives.
For my grandmother, this meant a childhood stolen by poverty and her parents' inadequacies. Her name would not be the only crime her father would commit against her. After a little over a year of struggle, he fled his family duties forever. With her father gone and her mother crippled by grief, Billie became a school drop-out and went to work for her family's desperately needed second income. She might have become a victim of a pre-child-labor-law America, but her pride and precociousness would not let her fall to ignorance or illiteracy. She began going to the public library in all her spare time. On the shelves of the Detroit Public Library, my grandmother found her school. Homer, Kant, Dickens and many other brilliant writers became her teachers, her mentors and her friends.
Billie worked until she was 70. Today she lives happily in Florida and devotes much of her time to several volunteer programs. She has never again received a chance to return to conventional schooling and some of the luck of her childhood followed her into adulthood. But her love for the library sustains to this day and she remains a voracious reader. Her knowledge has contributed to scholarly research projects, made her a published writer and caused fear in everyone in our family on Trivial Pursuit night. She is truly one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. Through the charitable knowledge offered by America's public libraries, my grandmother manifested the fruit of a country that had seemingly denied her of its prospects. Her library story exemplifies the significance and importance of our public libraries. |
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