Most pre- and elementary school teachers and children’s librarians receive bags of treats or handmade gifts from families
who visit the classrooms or library's children’s room on a nearly daily basis. I still have some of
those gifts and holiday cards from my days as the youth services librarian in
Peterborough, New Hampshire. I have sweet memories of the care and gratitude
that the families had for me just for doing my job: simply by helping to
instill a love of reading and the library.
Of course, I get that kind of gratitude. I
made many gifts and many batches of cookies for teachers, custodians,
principals, and librarians in the schools my daughters attended. I entrusted my
children to their care every day and the relationships between teachers,
children, and families can be very special.
Something has, however, always surprised me
as long as I’ve been working in a library. As public workers, we are paid
through our New England towns, and we work hard to provide excellent service.
It often includes a fine balance, of course, between taking care of our books
and other library materials, making sure they get back to the library in a
timely fashion and going above and beyond with smiles and attention. Those two
goals are sometimes in conflict, but at the very heart of our jobs in the
library is the desire to be there for our community.
And so, I’m surprised every holiday season
by the generosity and gratitude shown to us – just for doing our jobs. For library users from all over the area
(even residents of other towns love Norwood’s library!) this seems to be
naturally a time when we deserve an extra pat on the back above and beyond what
we get paid. Many times a day, leading up to Christmas, library patrons arrive
at one of our library desks with sweets of every kind. During the weeks leading up to Christmas,
those of us on staff receive emails from one of the library departments that
there are “is a large box of chocolates at the front desk from Mr. X!” or there
is a large order of Guarino’s pastries from the Y Family in the staff room!”
And it’s not only during the holidays that
our library fans think of us. Several times a month we might receive rolls and
spiced butter from someone who has visited the Texas Roadhouse or a coffee cake
or cookies from someone who loves to bake for us.
It’s obvious that we are cared for and
appreciated, and I guess I have to admit I’ve never quite understood it. We
are, after all, just doing our jobs.
I’ve never quite understood that kind of gratitude
for public servants until last week.
We had a medical emergency on a rainy night
at our weekend home in the small town of Marion just before Christmas Eve. It
was frightening and scary and not quite as much of an emergency in the end as
it appeared to be. However, the severity of the situation didn’t matter much to
the fabulous EMT team of the Marion Fire Department and the Marion police
officer who arrived first on the scene. Their first job was to serve us, calm
us, keep us healthy and safe and that was all that mattered. Their
professionalism, care, and concern were exemplary.
I’ll admit that it was I who was the center
of the attention; it was a terrifying bout of severe adult croup brought on by
a sudden cold (and perhaps a bit of fatigue). Not being able to breathe is an
experience I never want to experience again. Woken from his sleep by my
distress, my cool-witted husband called 911 and help arrived within minutes. An
ambulance ride and emergency room visit eased us through the tough situation. I
was none the worse for wear the next day, Christmas Eve, with the exception of
the worst of the cold and being a bit
shaky from it all.
Of course, our thoughts of gratitude to the
public service that our little town provided were immense. One of the first things we did that next day
was write some thank you cards, track down some name and purchase some boxes of chocolates, delivering them to the Marion Fire and Police departments. That night before, when other mothers and
fathers were getting their sleep in preparation for holiday festivities,
Marion’s police force and professional and volunteer firefighters and rescue
personnel were awake and waiting for my husband’s call. They were simply doing their
jobs.
There are numerous books in the library
that we can read about gratitude and thankfulness. There are ways to write
thank you notes and the correct grammar to use. We can smile or cry through the
Chicken Soup for the Soul stories, those with happy endings, and some without.
Life is full of kind moments from friends, family members, and strangers.
This was the year I totally came to
understand the simplistic gratitude of townspeople who are grateful that we
just do our job. They want us to know that we are doing it well. This is the
year that we started our tradition – Gerry and I – to thank annually the men
and women of two departments of our weekend town for just doing their job so
well.
