“The library has become our home....”

By Lavana H., November 2007

My husband and I grew up in small towns not far from each other with all of our extended family within a few miles. We knew everyone and everyone knew us. In fact our fathers had grown up together and our grandparents had been friends most of their lives.

So it was with great sadness and trepidation that we made the decision to move to Champaign in 1990. Our sons were still very young, ages 3 and 4, and we wanted to raise them in the same small community atmosphere that we had always enjoyed. But it was difficult to find work in the rural area we were from, and my husband had difficulty staying awake while driving, so we decided to move into what was for us the very large city of Champaign.

The boys and I were used to walking anywhere we needed to go in town and waving at every car because it was either a friend or family member inside of it. Here we knew nearly no one that we saw, and they didn’t expect to know us. People just moved about never noticing who was next to them. Our community library had been one tiny room in our small town. The children’s area had been one wall of books. But the librarian had known us. In fact I had gone to school with her. We really weren’t sure we were doing the right thing in bringing our sons here at all.

At first we both found work in the area, but we were still living far away and looking for a home in Champaign. Randy began working at Frasca International building flight simulators and I began driving a school bus in Champaign. This meant that we loaded our young sons in the car every morning and drove 60 miles to Champaign and spent the day there. I had several hours between my morning and afternoon routes when we hung out at the Champaign Library. It was rather overwhelming to walk into this huge building. But within days the librarians knew us by name. As we came in, Rich McDonald squatted down before my sons, greeted them with a smile, called them by name and welcomed them in. I stood behind a book shelf with tears streaming down my face, because it was really going to be okay. And since that day, the library has become our home and the people there have been our community.