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Dear Reader,
I write for readers every day. Today, readers wrote the column for me. Thanks so much for sending your stories. Reading emails from book club readers is the best part of my day.
"Suzanne, several years ago, just before Christmas, in the grocery checkout, my debit card could not be read by the electronic device. Like you, I knew there was money available, but, again, like you, I felt as if the people in the line behind me could read 'LOSER' stenciled on my head. I did not have the cash to pay the bill nor another card. The store would hold my groceries until I came back with a payment.
My bank was about a 20 minute round trip, so I pushed the cart of groceries aside and walked toward my car to go to the bank.
Just as I'm ready to step into the van a customer flagged me down and told me the clerk in the grocery wanted me to come back. I went in to find out that someone, probably the woman who flagged me down, had paid for my groceries.
This brought me to tears. I took my groceries, left the store and came across a friend about to go into the grocery store. I tearfully told him what happened and how embarrassed I was that someone else paid for my groceries, and I didn't know how or who to pay back.
He had the perfect answer. 'Just pay it forward.'
Which is exactly what I did." -- Linda J.
"Your [column] about inscriptions reminded me of an interesting one in a book I purchased for a couple dollars at an estate sale in NE Texas a few years ago along with an old hymn psalter. This is a complete Old and New Testament, dated 1869, including a section in the back with the Psalms in meter and rhyme, something I had never seen before. The book is very small, measuring 3 x 4.5 inches and 1.25 inches thick with almost microscopic print for which I need readers for my readers!
The inscription, in elegant writing is:
Chas. Brundrett
Dec. 25, 1883
Have courage to Say No (with NO underlined twice)
I found his name online as having been born in England in 1864, so he would have been 19 when given this Bible. This was given to him for Christmas at the age at which he was embarking on his adult life, with a heartfelt warning. I learned of his wife's name and birth date, that her father was born in Ireland, dates of death and burial in a family plot in Texas, a little glimpse into two families who would have come through Ellis Island, a very special bonus not noticed when I purchased the book." -- Carole F.
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these titles deserve your attention:
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EVERMORE by Corinne Michaels
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WAISTED by Randy Susan Meyers
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This month's Penguin Classics book is THE STONEWALL READER, by the New York Public Library, and including a foreword by Edmund White. I have a copy of the book to share with a lucky reader, so start reading today and enter for your chance to win.
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