Goodbye Grandma…

Today my family and I put to rest my dear Grandma.  She played such an important role in my love of reading, so I thought it would be appropriate to honor her here on my blog.

Mary Casto was born in 1926, one of nine children. Her family, the Boswell’s, were pioneers who decided to settle and farm in Western Virginia in the late 1700s.  The family home was in a hollow and she had to walk several miles a day to get to school, but this never hindered her.  She seldom missed school.

She met my grandfather, Arnold Casto, at a church function. Grandpa was in the service and knew one of her brothers.  He wrote her under the pretense of finding where her brother was stationed. They began writing to one another every day.  They eventually began courting, and were married after my grandfather returned from service.  Arnold and Mary Casto had three children: Judith (my mother), Mary Ellen, & David.  David preceded my grandmother in death; he died just a few years ago of prostate cancer.

Grandma started working at the public library in 1972. At that time, the library was housed in the basement of the town hall, with a collection of 2,000 books.  While the collection was small, my grandmother brought so much love and enthusiasm about books and reading to the children and families of the small town.  To many, this was the only access they had to books and she did her best to instill a love of reading and respect for literature in each and every one of them.

The library moved in 1989 to a new location. Grandma worked at the library until she retired in 1995. The libraries collection grew by leaps and bounds in this time, it now houses more than 26,000 books, CDs, & DVDs.  I spent many a summer with my grandparents, and I distinctly remember spending countless hours in this library. It was here I discovered the work of Stephen King, read Gone with the Wind and other pieces of fiction that impacted my life.

Grandma & Grandpa’s home was also always full of books. Their den is lined with built-in bookshelves.  It is here that I discovered Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children. I could grab a book of the shelf, curl up and lose myself in another world.

As I grew into adulthood, my grandmother continued to play an important role in my life. When I met my husband, Grandma and Grandpa both accepted him as part of our family immediately, although interracial marriages weren’t something that was necessarily accepted in their small town. When we were blessed with children, they loved and spoiled them like only grandparents can.

It saddens me to know that my boys won’t get the opportunity to know Grandma as I did, but we can keep her memory alive through the stories we tell of her.

It is hard to put into words just how much my grandmother impacted my life, but I do hope this post does justice to a woman who impacted the world so dramatically.