Othelia’s Gift
My mother wanted to go to college to become a
librarian, but after high school she had to work to
help her family. I received an email in 2013 from
my cousin, Ken Stambaugh, that described an event
that took place in the 1940s between my mother
and her nephew, Ken.
“Once upon a time in a life far behind, my parents
and I visited you and your parents in Findlay for
a day. They were raising collies, which were
beautiful animals. I think I remember your mother
asking me what books I read (this could be
selective memory), a question to which I had no
answer as I had yet to read a real book, there
being none in my house and I in the fourth grade
was unaware that I was suppose to read books. A
few weeks later there arrived in the mail a package
addressed to me. This in itself was a major event
in my life; however, it was the contents of that
package that changed my life. Inside were two
books, well bound and thick. The titles were
Lochinvar Luck and Lad of Sunny Bank by Albert
Payson Terhune. I opened the cover and began to
read...I loved it. Later I received Lassie Come
Home, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, and
Ivanhoe. Thus I began my love affair with books,
which led me to college and a Social
Science/English Literature Degree, which then
propelled me on to Graduate School and later a
career in publishing. During the last fifteen
years I have been teaching college courses to
the navy aboard ships all over the world, so that
brings it full circle and if it hadn't been for
your mother’s interest, and taking the time to
send me something of value, I may and probably
would have never experienced the adventures this
journey has afforded. I also remember the clever
and fun letters your mother used to send to my
parents, who would laugh and laugh, so my aunt
also brought joy to our house.”
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Othelia’s Gift - Part 2
Below is a second email I received in 2016 from
another cousin, Nola Stambaugh Weber, describing
her “gift” from my mother in the 1950s. Again, I was
unaware of this. We always had lots of books in our
house. I was always reading, and my farorite was
Heidi, a book I still have…….Marilyn
“I, like Ken, was also the recipient of hand-me-down
books from Othelia: all the girl's classics of the
time: Lad, A Dog; Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm; the
Elsie Dinsmore series (a very old-fashioned,
moralistic series); and joy-of- joys--the Nancy Drew
series. So, although Othelia never became a working
librarian, she influenced her daughters, Ken and me
to become readers, and also my two younger Boatright
cousins, Betty and Monalu Rainwater (born in 1953
and 1957), whom I passed the "Marilyn and Nancy"
books on to.
About once a year, or every 18 months, Mom, Dad, and
I would drive from Bay City to Atlanta to visit
Mom's sister Maxine and family, which was a long
three-day trip. Our first night on the road was at your
house in Findlay. That is when I received my
"installments" of the Marilyn-and -Nancy books, thus
saving Othelia some postage. But the next morning
we would get up early and have breakfast, and your
Grandma would have packed us a wonderful lunch for
the car, often including Girl Scout "Thin Mint" cookies,
which I believe that she bought by the case because
she couldn't say "no" to little girls in green uniforms,
and which she kept in the freezer.
So, truly, Othelia-the-librarian influenced a bunch of
the cousins to become readers, and thus
Nola Stambaugh Weber - 2016 |
