By JOHN WORTHEN
News-Times Staff
Johnette Wilson has spent a lifetime collecting books. For most of her 75 years, the El Dorado native has poured over thousands of nouns, verbs and adjectives, relishing each one as her mind veered off to far away places.
She’s been on several African safaris, dealt with brazen mafia bosses and has even spent time with former presidents, all through the pages of her much-cherished books.
But when Wilson decided to move out of her El Dorado home and into the Sweet Home retirement community in July, she wasn’t sure what to do with her collection of approximately 1,700 books. Selling the books was out of the question, and donating them to a place where she’d never see them again just didn’t seem right.
There was only one decision left: Bring them with her to Sweet Home.
When Wilson told Sweet Home officials about the collection and her plans to share it with other residents, they immediately began construction on floor-to-ceiling shelves that fill one side of a spacious room there. Everyone who lives at the facility has access to the room day and night, allowing them to “check out” books anytime.
But at least one book is tucked safely away in Wilson’s neat-as-a-pin room on the second floor: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee’s masterpiece about the resilient southern lawyer Atticus Finch. She’s not stingy with it, mind you, and would probably let someone borrow it if they asked, but a quick and assured return may be the only way to secure her favorite book of all time.
She has other favorites, too, like Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather” and biographies of presidents like Harry S. Truman and John Adams. She also loves the travel stories by James A. Michener, who “has taken me across the world.”
On a recent afternoon, Wilson, her white oversized glasses framing her soft eyes, sat in the library and organized a new stack of books that will soon be added to the shelves. She smiled gracefully as she spoke of her love of books and the places she’s seen and experienced because of them.
“I discovered books when I was very young, and at 8 I read ‘Gone With the Wind,’” said Wilson, her hand on a large stack that included the popular book “Marley and Me” by John Grogan. “I had a wonderful mother who allowed me to read anything I wanted, much to the dismay of the librarian. She was upset that my mother would allow me to read books like that.”
An adopted child raised during the depression, Wilson often used books as an escape from reality, where fiction, nonfiction, science and adventure books took hold of her young imagination; she realized at an early age that reading was the key to being educated.
“My husband, who died last April, went to Harvard and Princeton and was in the Navy; he was very well educated,” Wilson said. “But my education came from reading books. And he always supported me with that. There are many great opportunities that come from reading.”
Several years ago, when Wilson volunteered at the Literacy Council, she saw first-hand how missing out on those opportunities can be devastating. She recalls one instance in particular when a grandmother was heartbroken because she wasn’t able to read to her grandchildren when they asked for a story.
Remembering the woman almost brought tears to Wilson’s eyes.
“This woman held a responsible job, she drove a car, but she just couldn’t read. That baffled me,” said Wilson, who tutored the woman until she was able to read on a basic level.
“When she came to me and said she wasn’t able to read to her grandchildren, that really hit home. I have 15 grandchildren, and I know that feeling when you read to them. I would be heartbroken if I couldn’t read to them.”
After the weeks-long tutoring session ended, Wilson gave the woman stacks and stacks of children’s books to share with her grandchildren. It was a gratifying moment for Wilson, who has continued her giving spirit with the donation to Sweet Home.
The donation isn’t something Wilson brags about, but she said it was a good feeling to be able to share the books with fellow residents, just as she shared her love of reading with others while working at the Literacy Council.
Tooling around in the new library, filing and organized the books alphabetically, Wilson feels at home. It will never be the same as the old white farm house she and her husband shared for so many decades, but as long as she has her books and can share them with others, it will be enough to bring a smile to her face each day.
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