Faith - Chapter Three - Holly's Library

When Holly entered the Pearl*Mart that morning, I could tell she was on a mission. She had a determined look on her face which surprised me; she usually tended to act shyly and would try to get her mother to ask me questions for her. Anyone who knows me knows that doesn’t work with me and that I always encourage children to speak for themselves. This day, she was accompanied by another young girl and needed to talk to me right away.

“Canada Jon,” she said, “what are you going to do with those books Frank cleaned out of the school and with those other books that have come in?” I hadn’t thought about it at all. I told her we would probably save them until the school board figured out what they would do with the Library that had been destroyed and was now our Shelter.

“Why,” I asked?

“Because the library was my life and I spent all my time there. It meant everything to me.” She looked like she was going to cry.

“How about we make a special shelf in the Pearl*Mart and put the books there?” I suggested lamely. Not good enough. She looked around at the shelves dubiously.

“And how would we lend them out?” she asked quietly.

OK, this was getting complicated. “I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe we could find a place to put them and create a little library?” I was stretching now.

“That might work,” she said. “But who would be the librarian?”

I looked in her eyes and she looked right back. “Why do I get the impression that you think that person should be you?” I asked.

She smiled.

I told her I would see what I could do. She’d been followed into the Pearl*Mart by John Olsakovsky, the current Shelter Manager. He’d overhead the whole exchange. “Your wings are showing,” he said, or something like that. Great, I thought. Now I’m an Angel and I just made a promise to a little girl. I had no idea how I was going to pull it off, but I had faith that something would come up for her.

I held Holly’s wish in the back of my mind for many days. As the month wore on I would think of it from time to time and wonder how I could do it. From time to time Holly would come in the Pearl*Mart and look at me with expectant eyes and I would smile, give her a little hug and remind her to have faith. But, my time in Pearlington was coming to an end. On Thanksgiving, as I was driving into the field to park my car for the day, I spied Konrad and his team, building sheds for the people of the town. I stopped and asked him if I could buy one from him for Holly. “Sounds like a worthy cause to me,” he said. “Leave it with me.” His team had already been joined by Eileen Powers, a fellow Canadian and friend who had driven down the day before to join the effort. Eileen had just given me a Tim Hortons coffee cup to use as a “homing beacon” (wry Canadian humour).

By Friday morning, the day I was leaving, the shed was well under way. They decided to build it completely from wood, instead of corrugated on the sides and roof as the other sheds had been built. They wrapped the inside carefully with Tyvek to keep the books dry. They built shelves inside and Eileen painted the whole thing white, one of the few colours of paint we had. On the door, she and Dallas and the others painted, in curving red letters: “Holly’s Library.”

As it approached completion and as I readied to leave, I called Holly at home. I got her mother’s cell phone and was disappointed to find they were in Louisiana for the day. I asked to speak with Holly.

“Holly, when you return home, please come to the school. I have a surprise for you. Ask for Miss Powers.”

“OK,” she responded in a confused voice.

“And Holly,” I said quietly, “always remember that Dreams DO come true.”

By all accounts, Holly was stunned into silence when she arrived at the school Saturday morning. When she got over her shock, she began moving the books out of storage and into her new library. She posted a sign saying that the lending library would soon be open. She would let no one help her, handling the dolly and lifting the boxes herself. Holly was now The Librarian.

In 1996, while living in the former Soviet Union lecturing and developing my Dream School program, the Soviet press labelled me, in Russian, “... nothing but a Big Dreamer.” The name stuck and those who know me very well know how much I love that handle. If a Big Dreamer can’t help make a young girl’s Dream come true, then what kind of a Dreamer is he, anyway? Holly’s Library is a symbol to the town of Pearlington:

Never give up. Have faith in the timing and rightness of all things. Hold on tight to your Dreams.

Thanks Conrad, Tim and crew. Thanks Eileen and Dallas. Cheers, Holly. I hope you light up the world with your smile and your faith.

Thanks for helping this Big Dreamer be 3 for 3.