Some of E’s fondest memories of his Granddad are the Saturday trip with Papa to the library for their weekly bag of books. The love of reading was a shared bond.

Here on the island  we begin our  day by looking out the window with our coffee for three hours . We then work on the project’d’jour  until we break for lunch around 2…. After two we might go to the south house or go visiting but more often than not we relax with our books. We do a lot of reading here.  Lately the weather has been so good I have been reading out on the front perch in the sun. The danger to me when I read (apart from falling off the cliff) is that I can’t put a book down once I start.. I pretty much have to finish it immediately.  I tend to skip part two in the next days routine (work for four hours) and read until my book is finished.. I like to finish what I start (when it comes to reading)…  I like mysteries so they are usually easy reads. I exagerate tease that I read a book a day.  I have been known when a book was really good to read through the night to get it finished.. (when I was a girl I started Gone with the Wind after school on a Friday and didn’t get out of bed til it was finished Sunday afternoon)

Like E’s family, mine were voracious readers. My Mom says the Kerrisdale library saved her life when her kids (my brother, sister and I ) were young. There was no money for Brownies, summer camps or vacations to occupy our leisure hours. We read. That is all we did. Once a week we drove to the library, borrowed five or six books each and returned home quite happy to snuggle up with our treasures.

My Mom grew up in one of the colder parts of Canada on Lake Superior.  Her Dad was a carpenter who built a house for his bride in 1912, which still stands today.

During the 30’s Mom’s Grandparents  (I don’t have their picture ) moved in with them and they faced the depression together. The winter of 1933 was the coldest on record in Fort William with the December temperatures dropping  to -33 C. Her Granddad, like most of the family who followed after him loved to read. When Grandma and Mom walked to the local church bazaar that  Christmas   (it was -30!!!!!!) Moms GrandDad went with them but stopped on the way home at the library . A blizzard started after their return but her Granddad still wasn’t home. Mom remembers standing with my Grandma watching out the window for him. The vision of her Granddad struggling down the sidewalk through the blizzard carrying his library books remains with her..  He caught pneumonia that day and died in the early morning of December 13,  1933. Mom was in her bed down the hall  (she was twelve) and heard his last words with a thick scotch brogue … ” I’m dead but I wont lay down”. (1932 Gracie Fields song).   He was 76.

To some,  reading is

more dangerous than others.