Welcome to The Bookshop

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for Him.” Lamentations 3: 22-23

On a Wednesday afternoon in late spring, she entered the bookshop. Once inside, she slid her purse off her left arm, unzipped it to find her glasses case. She took off her sunglasses and exchanged them for her regular prescription glasses, then placed the case carefully back in her purse and zipped it closed.
Annabelle smiled at the familiar aroma of fresh pastries emanating from the café in the back of the shop. She didn’t tell Katherine she was coming today. She thought since she had an open afternoon, she would just drop by surprise her friend. Annabelle visits the shop when she can to enjoy a cup of tea and catch up with Katherine.
Her visits to the shop are fewer these days, however. She would love to come more often, but right now she can’t.
Before heading back to the cafe, Annabelle took a moment to look around the shop’s entrance to see if Katherine added any new books to the displays. When Katherine designed the entrance to her shop, she set it up to look like a living room with cozy chairs, blankets, side tables, lamps, and comfy throw pillows. It was a place you could take a book off one of the shelves, pick a favorite chair, and make yourself comfortable while you read and sip coffee or tea.
The shop is an old home, so character was already built into it. All Katherine and her husband Tom had to do was enhance what the rooms already offered. They designed each room, upstairs and downstairs, to have its own style. On the right wall of the shop’s entrance is a large window that fills the length of the wall. It looks out onto evergreen trees and flowering azalea bushes that line the side of the old house. There are bird feeders near the bushes that keep a flurry of songbirds visiting throughout the day.
On either side of the window are two comfy chairs with floral upholstering, facing each other, but far enough apart to give the person sitting in them a sense of having their own space. Each chair has a side table with a lamp on it. Customers consider themselves lucky if they find one of these chairs unoccupied and can snag one for an hour or so. Once they’re seated, they can peruse a new book or pick up where they left off in their own book, surrounded by trees, birds and warm lamplight.

Tom custom built a long two-shelf bookcase that ran beneath the entire window. It’s low enough not to obstruct the view to the outside, and is filled with home décor books. The top shelf of the bookcase has flowerpots with greenery, a random stack of books, some folded blankets, and the odd collection of picture frames. The setting is perfect for a reader.
If the two window chairs are taken, there is a small nook on the left side of the room between the refurbished wooden staircase that leads to the second floor and the wall. It’s a space just large enough for a loveseat and a small table by the window. The table holds a pot of fresh geraniums, and the floor in front of the love seat is anchored by a large red Persian rug. The remaining entire wall has bookshelves filled with books, each has sections titled History, Home Life, Cooking and so forth.
Annabelle smiled when she saw the shelf with the sign that said Poetry. Annabelle loves poetry. Tom often jokes with her, saying one day he is going to replace the poetry sign with a new one that says, Annabelle’s Corner. She loved the idea. Just then a favorite poem came to her mind by Emily Dickenson. Annabelle whispered it aloud:

“A word is dead, when it is said, some say,
but I say, that word begins to live, that day.”

She can share an array of poems from memory. To Annabelle, poems bring a kind of beauty to otherwise mundane words. Still, no words of poetry reach her heart deeper than the words in the Scriptures. Annabelle loves studying her Bible and she knows it, and its author, well. For the past few years, she’s noticed that verses on long-suffering have brought her the most comfort.
Nevertheless, today Annabelle was in her favorite bookshop looking forward to seeing her friend. Before she headed into the café, she looked down and noticed Traveler was not in his usual place on the floor soaking up the afternoon sun. “That’s odd,” Annabelle said to no one in particular. She walked down the short hallway toward the café. When she entered, she saw Katherine standing beside a small step ladder and Tom was standing on the top step. He was hanging a large rectangular plaque over the only window in the café.
Traveler stood close by watching dad, with his front paws on the first step of the ladder. He kept his eyes on Tom and occasionally whined in protest that dad was so high up on this contraption and he couldn’t get up there with him. Traveler noticed Annabelle when she entered the room, he glanced at her, wagged his tail, then quickly returned his gaze to Tom.
Katherine turned to see Annabelle come in. “Well, hello my friend! What a surprise! It’s good to see you. Don’t mind us! I found this plaque I like and Tom is hanging it for me.”
Annabelle greeted Katherine and Tom and even said hello to Traveler, who wagged his tail abidingly. Katherine left Tom to his project and walked a few steps over to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. “Here, let me get your teacup and saucer. Just select which tea you like. You may want to try the scones I made this morning. They will go nicely with your tea, the whole English picture, tea and scones, right?” Annabelle laughed. “That sounds perfect, I’ll take this nice Earl Gray today.”
“Done!” Tom said as he stepped off the ladder and double checked his work. The plaque was centered perfectly over the window. The words written in cursive read: Come to the table. It was a verse from the book of Revelation where Jesus invites everyone to come to the table that Christ prepared for you. “Very nice,” he said. Katherine and Annabelle agreed. Meanwhile Traveler circled Tom’s legs, thrilled that dad was back on the ground where he could reach him. Tom leaned down and patted their golden retriever on his head, thanking him for being such a good watchdog. Traveler, soaking up the praise, leaned down and stretched his front paws waaay out! Tom grinned at him, then folded the step ladder and took it to the supply closet across the hall from the café.

Katherine picked up her tongs and placed a scone on a bread plate, then took a heavy, blue cloth napkin and a fork, and placed it on the plate alongside the pastry. “There you go,” she said. Annabelle thanked her and handed Katherine her card to pay for her treats. She turned toward the only table in the café, placed her tea and scone on the bistro table, pulled one of the two chairs out and sat down, then hung her purse on the back of the chair.

Katherine poured herself a cup of coffee and took her seat in the opposite chair to visit with her friend since there were no customers at the moment. After the how-are-you-doing comments were shared, Katherine took a sip of her coffee and asked what she had been waiting to ask. “How’s your mother?” she said softly. Annabelle responded, “About the same.”
About the same! Those three words housed within them a mountain, no! a whole range of mountains of love, of years of tender, round-the-clock care that included bathing, positioning, repositioning, hair brushing, fixing the covers, adjusting the pillows, positioning feet just so, chatting on good days, singing and holding hands on distant days, and excitement on the days that Annabelle’s mother recognized her. It was over three years ago when Annabelle’s mother became bedbound. The two of them had nice conversations at first. Annabelle would sing to her mother and read to her, and she still does, but the years do what they will do as dementia develops. Slowly, the alertness slips away, the cognitive conversations are fewer, and the memory fades along with the mother-daughter talks.

Annabelle’s schedule is now built around caring for mother and daddy. Between her brother, a hired caregiver and Annabelle, her parents are cared for day and night. Annabelle prepares all the meals and portions them out for the week, she takes her daddy to his doctor’s appointments and she and her brother provide for their every need.
Katherine has, from time to time, noticed a weariness in Annabelle’s countenance.

When Katherine is not busy and can sit at the table and chat with her, Annabelle shares that when she feels weary, the Lord speaks to her through her Bible study. She may be encouraged by a verse she reads, a text from a friend, a chat with a Sunday school friend who is in a similar place in life, a song, or even a clean comedian who can make her laugh. Her Lord ministers to her in a variety of ways, always reminding her His grace is sufficient for the day.
Annabelle is a cherished friend to Katherine. Encouragement flows from Annabelle naturally, but there’s also another side to this elegant lady. A humorous side. Annabelle can tell you a story that will make you laugh until you are in tears. That side of her must come from her daddy.
Annabelle’s daddy is doing well now that he has a new medicine for his diabetes. Even with his own health issues, he feels good enough to make Annabelle laugh before she leaves their home after spending the day or night with her parents.
“Now daddy,” Annabelle often says, “Don’t you give the caregiver a rough time today, you hear me?” She smiles as she hugs him. “Aaaah!” her daddy replies as he leans against the door frame of the back door, watching to make sure his daughter she gets to her car ok, “She knows by now we’re all about a half a bubble off plumb!”
Annabelle and her father laugh. She takes the car keys from her purse as she heads toward her car and waves goodbye while she tells him she loves him. She situates herself in the driver’s seat, and reaching back to find the seatbelt, she said to herself, “Half a bubble off plumb!” and laughed again. Daddy, you’re such a hoot, she thinks. She waves goodbye again from inside the car and her father waves back. She watches him go inside and shut the door, then Annabelle pulls out of the driveway and begins her forty-minute drive home.

Back at the café and the bistro table, Katherine brought Annabelle up to date on her own life, not only her life in the shop but also her life with Tom and Traveler at home. She brags a little on her productive vegetable garden and on the corn bread she made the night before from her seasoned cast iron skillet. The cornbread, Katherine confessed, tasted almost as good as her mother’s. Annabelle smiled and invited herself and her husband over to Katherine’s the next time she made corn bread and Annabelle said she would bring a pot of pintos. The perfect southern meal, not forgetting the sliced tomatoes and onion.

Katherine and Annabelle have shared life together for a number of years. They give advice to each other when it’s asked for, and are accountable to each other on their Bible studies.
Almost two hours passed when Annabelle sighed. When one of them sighed, it meant that the two of them had, for that visit, solved all the world’s problems during their time together, and now they were content to head back to their individual worlds. That sigh has a great deal of meaning. It’s a sigh of relief that comes from sharing your world with a trusted friend, a sigh of gratitude for friendship, a sigh of sharing your load with someone, and listening as your friend shares theirs with you. There is a world of release when two friends sigh after a long visit.
Annabelle finished her tea, placed her fork across the bread plate, laid her napkin beside her empty cup, and scooted her chair away from the table. She left some of her scone on the plate and Traveler, knowing she was about to leave, stood up and walked over to her. She knew exactly what he wanted, so she took the last piece of her scone and handed it to him. He received it happily and wagged his tail in appreciation.
Katherine and Annabelle hugged each other, wished each other well. Annabelle took her purse off the back of the chair, slid it on her arm, and headed toward the shop’s front door, unzipping her purse to get her sunglasses out.
Katherine picked up the dishes and walked them to the kitchen sink. Both ladies left each other feeling refreshed, inspired and a little more rested.

But after all, that’s what friendship does.