A few weeks before my wedding last July, Ginni stopped me in front of the library’s plaza to ask me how things were going. She told me about her own experience of wedding dress shopping and gave me some solid advice (…with a few appropriate curse words thrown in!!…) about not letting the ‘@#!!’ details get too overwhelming! We talked for close to 20 minutes before she rolled on her way down Broadway St. and I went back to work.
The first time that I met her she was volunteering and leading the adult book discussion group at the library in 2005. I was slightly intimidated by her wit. For the next fourteen years, she held me accountable for the promotional work that I was doing for the library and Shelby County Reads. I relied on her to catch typos on fliers, articles, and the information that we were posting online. There was no better editor. She was quick, frank …and typically right! She didn’t like too many commas. She caught the appropriate usage of words such as ‘pored’ and ‘poured.’ On the Shelby County Reads committee, she never bit her tongue about books that she didn’t like and she passionately lobbied for the books that she did enjoy. Not long before she passed, she had almost single-handedly gotten Shelby County Reads set-up as an official nonprofit organization. She managed all of the legal paperwork and served as treasurer.
At ‘Books and Brews,’ a library book discussion group that meets at Cagney’s once a month, a chair was always pulled out for Ginni. Jason Aukerman who is a co-leader of the group wrote, ‘It is hard to believe we will never again encounter the chuckles, the well-timed wisecracks, the trenchant commentaries on the characters we meet in our monthly readings, and the utterly unique and wise perspective that Ginni brought to our table every month.’ At one of those meetings, I sat across from Ginni and learned more about her family. Her father was a doctor; her brother was a genius who died young. Ginni was warm and a great conversationalist. She also was always willing to help, made a point to get involved, was an activist and she got things done.
‘Retired’ is not how I thought of Ginni. She kept as busy as a full-time employee. She volunteered at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum, at the Shelby County Public Library in the Genealogy Department, with Shelby County Reads, along with several more organizations throughout the year. As long as the meetings or programs didn’t interrupt her Mah jongg games, she was typically present.
A couple of years back, I had to drop off some tedious promotional mailers that needed folded, stuffed and inserted into labeled envelopes at her home. She asked me if I would like to stay longer and for some reason I didn’t. It’s one regret that I have because I have no doubt that I would have learned more about her and enjoyed my time. I will miss Ginni and cannot think of better person to honor as a volunteer.
Laura Land, Friends of the Library, Inc.
