Reminiscing . . . Lois Brown and her Gift of Books

Lois Brown?  Her name was written across the front free endpaper of the book,
FAMOUS LIGHTHOUSES of NEW ENGLAND, a book Marash Girl just found in a box of old books.  (Did Marash Girl's fascination with lighthouses exist way back then, when she first saw the book on her living room bookshelf?)

Lois Brown lived on a farm on the South Shore of Massachusetts, in  the town of Marshfield -- she was a good friend of Peter's, and when she moved out of her farmhouse (Marash Girl can still remember walking up the hill on their farm with Peter and Lois Brown's husband -- Harry Brown -- the name just came to Marash Girl -- and they had an adopted daughter, Polly Brown -- I wonder where she is today?) On the day Peter and Marash Girl were visiting, Lois Brown was working on hooking a rug -- she had a frame and sat behind the frame patiently weaving the rug by pulling the hook attached to colored yarn -- which color Marash Girl cannot remember --   through the course mesh that was soon to be a rug -- a work of art that would take a good year to complete!  Lois Brown even gave Marash Girl a hook in the hopes that Marash Girl, then perhaps only 8 years old, would begin the hobby herself.   

Hm m m .... wonder what ever happened to that hook . . .

Lois Brown, when she moved, sent two large cartons of books to the family home on Lowell Avenue, and Marash Girl does believe that that may have been the beginning of a life-long fascination with books . . . or perhaps the beginning of her fascination with books was the gift given to Marash Girl when she was taught to read (in English) by her Auntie Zabelle . . . well before Marash Girl had entered first grade, a fascination that continued, perhaps because the Newton Free Library children's branch was right across the street from Claflin, the very first school Marash Girl attended.