of everything — so that ’ s what I did . With amazing speed , the books were ordered and soon arrived . I had stickers made up to thank the grant provider for their kind donation and then started delivering the books . Wow ! The reaction was immediate and heartwarming . I am not sure that I ’ ve ever done anything that was so appreciated .
A few seniors stepped up and became unofficial “ librarians .” They took neglected book collections and began sorting , rearranging , and culling . Often , when I arrived with a load of large-print books , I drove away with boxes of regular-sized print books that there wasn ’ t room for or were not being read .
And then came the fine tuning . Could I get more westerns ? How about some Elizabethan romance ? And then , “ Oh , while you ’ re here , do some of the other sites have jigsaw puzzles they ’ d like to share ?” The sharing idea had already occurred to me as I was taking books from one site and sharing them with others . So why not jigsaw puzzles ?
One of my star seniors was an 84-year-young resident who I dubbed my “ Executive Director .” She took the whole large-print book idea to a new level . She worked tirelessly at her own site but also sought a representative at each of the other Bridges buildings . “ But what about the rest of the city ?” she asked . And so the word went out to the other seniors ’ residences . At the moment , it ’ s a work in progress .
Besides getting other seniors ’ residences on board , we ’ ve also learned that “ books ” mean more than just “ reading ” books . Some seniors find any kind of reading to be beyond them , but picture books would be much appreciated . Other seniors
Jock and Helene
enjoy crosswords and word searches , so large-print versions of those are now on the list . And what about a large-print Scrabble dictionary ?
As the song says , “ And the beat goes on .” Next on the scene is something for those who have e-readers or can learn about them . Technology is available to enlarge print , and a new program is teaching seniors to teach other seniors how to see how they can be used . Pun intended .
Jock Mackenzie finds comfort in reading and is looking forward to reading Jussi Adler-Olsen ’ s The Keeper of Lost Causes , a book — along with others in the series — that happens to be available in large print . news & views AUTUMN 2021 | 51