Our Community Book Club

♥ Rena Connell

Gloria, I shall always think of you as one who inspired and stepped forward to quietly lead and make your voice and smile known within the Echo Lake Community. When we first started the evening book club, I remember one of the early evenings with just the two of us at my house alone together discussing a book and just enjoying getting to know each other. Our fledgling start has now resulted in a vibrant group of local women who monthly, read, enjoy each other’s company, and together share our histories, lives, and values.

I especially thank you for these:

• Suggesting the book club read, How to Be an Anti-Racist
• Offering me homegrown tomatoes from your garden
• Posting a Biden/Harris sign on your gatepost on Echo Lake Road
• Sitting at the book club booth with JoAnn and Carolyn Lacy to support reading at the 2021 Echo Lake Community Block Party & Artisan Market
• You and Jack dealing with the neighbor’s crash at your intersection on Echo Lake Road
• Sitting with the book club, Tiffany, and your author-friend discussing his novel on your patio, entertained by the hungry hummingbirds at the feeder
• Sitting around Mara’s deck heater beside Lost Lake talking books and lofty ideas those books had generated

Thank you for having made an impact on the community—and on me personally—just by being who you are—vibrant, caring, compassionate, opinionated, and willing to be a force for good. One day I intend to host the salad luncheon for the women’s book clubs that you and I planned to help finish before the pandemic and perhaps put the final chord on that little, symphony.