Yesterday was the memorial service for Allen’s grandmother, Evelyn. She was 97 when she died (just over two weeks ago). Evelyn was a life-long lover of reading and a woman with a non-ending thirst for knowledge. The last time she stayed with us, a year ago, she was reading a book by Charles Kuralt on his travels around the country. She was captivated by the book because one of her other passions was travel–not necessarily traveling herself (though she had) but reading about it.

Whenever I sat with her for her meal (breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner) she would talk about what she’d read in the Kuralt book or what she’d read in the paper (with her magnifying glass) or she would somehow relate the two. Even the last time we saw her, which was just a little over a month ago, though her mind was leaving her, she still had a book on her bedside table.

And so this is what I know, books never leave you. Even when most of those you grew up with have died and the friends you once knew are gone, you still have those people you hold dear, your memories, and your books. And if you have your books, you’ve always got an opportunity to learn and to grow, even when you are in your 90s.

And so, from one life-long reader to another: Evelyn, I salute you. And as for the rest of us, may we be so blessed to leave this world with a book we’ve been reading on our bedside table.