A Bookstore Friend

This last weekend I attended a memorial service for an elegant, intelligent and lovely woman.  As I looked around at her family and friends, I was grateful that I had been included in the gathering.  Because while Carla and I had spent hours over the years talking about everything under the sun, we had never sat down to a meal or even a cup of tea.  I was Carla's bookseller.

If you sell books to a person over a period of time, a special relationship develops.  I am privileged to know so much about the lives of my regular customers.  But "customer" is just not the appropriate word.  There is a deeper connection that a retail description does not cover.  Sometime I say that certain people are my "bookstore friends".  I have bookstore friends that drop in just to say hello without the thought of money exchanging hands.  I know about their joys and sorrows.  I have watched their children or grandchildren grow up.  I have been through the loss of a spouse or the celebration of a birth.  I also know what kinds of books take them away from the many distractions of a busy life or bring them comfort in a dark moment. And they know me too.  They have seen my daughters grow, experienced bookstore celebrations and sympathized with my struggles.

Of course there are people who are just passing through.  I hope that those people find a book that they love and enjoy their little time at The Open Book.  There are bookstore friends who have become "real world friends" as well.  My bookstore friends, however, hold a special place in my heart.  How lucky am I to have a world of people to care about, to share a love of books and a quiet talk on a rainy afternoon?

I will miss Carla.  Her gentle sense of humor.  Her love of good mysteries.  Her knowledge of the world.  I was fortunate that she walked into my door so many years ago and became my bookstore friend.