Long time GPL patron Bernice Coffman passed away Friday at the age of 99.
I first remember meeting Bernice when her granddaughter Jaime would bring her in to check out books and for library programs. This picture is of Jaime and Bernice at a library tea. For many of our older patrons, a trip to the library is the highlight of their week. Bernice was fortunate to have attentive family nearby who assisted her in continuing to live at home and making trips to the library well after her 90th birthday.
Bernice absolutely loved to read, and passed that love on to her children, and then to gran
dchildren and great grandchildren. The legacy of reading is so much more than the sharing of a hobby. Instilling a love of reading in young children sets them up for success in school and that success follows them into higher learning and adulthood.
One of the very best things about being a community library is the chance to get to know not just individuals, but their parents, grandparents, and children. When you see very young parents taking the time to sit on the floor of the children’s room and read books together, you can be pretty sure there is a Bernice somewhere in their family. Summer reading especially brings out the families and is a tradition with generations – it isn’t unusual to see grandparents, parents, and children all reading together through the program. The newspaper clipping on the right is Bernice’s granddaughters Debbie and Jaime, learning all about summer reading in 1967.
We’ll miss seeing Bernice’s smiling face, but we are so glad that her story will continue through the legacy she leaves her family and the community of Greenwood. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.