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Advance Library hosts book club for Assisted Living Center
World War II Chicago was the setting, as the Advance Assisted Living Center Book Club met in the therapy room to discuss "Dream While You're Feeling Blue," a novel by Elizabeth Berg.
Ten members met with Advance library volunteer Sandy Long to read and discuss this novel about three sisters growing up in an Irish family in Chicago during the Great War. Most of the references to V-mail, ration books, and the hardships of war were familiar to the men and women gathered in the reading circle.
The group meets every Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m.
"Some of the ladies aren't able to see the words on the pages, anymore, so they appreciate it, when we read aloud," Long said. "I also check out books for them and bring the books from the library. Both Toby Anderson and Versa Payne are big readers."
Two new members of the book club were on hand on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 215. Ivan and Gavada Woodfin have recently joined the club. Ivan Woodfin wore his WWII cap to the meeting.
"He's really proud of that cap!" said one of the ladies.
The Woodfins, who have been married 68 years, were coaxed into telling about their wedding night.
Ivan borrowed his uncle's car, and the couple drove to Piggott, AR. However, the car somehow left the road somewhere along the way back, and they spent the night in a ditch, little knowing that the trunk was full of blankets, which could have kept them warm. The next morning, a farmer and his wife invited them to breakfast. What a story!
Such are the tales told around the book club circle, as they share memories invoked by the pages of the novel.
Who knows what the group will read next? Whatever it is, there is no doubt that there will be smiles and laughter, as these wise seniors share memories from 70, 80, 90--and, yes, even one hundred years of life--on this earth.