“Pieces of Me II” Exhibition: Sharing Journal Pages & Blessings!

My Love for Stories, Journal Page June 15 2010

Depending on the subject matter, the journal pages we create can be made for our eyes only or shared with others.  Whether it’s done one-on-one or within a group, this can be a very rewarding experience.  Recently, I re-connected with a special librarian who inspired one of the pages in my “Pieces of Me II” exhibition at the Ottawa Public Library.  Over 40 years ago in this very same space, her magical voice made me fall in love with story telling.

The other week, on my way out of the children’s section of the library I glanced at the information desk.  Why?  Perhaps because when I put my exhibition up, I hoped in my heart that someone would recall the woman I spoke of in the “Why I love story telling” page.  Too shy to ask anyone if they knew of the lady I remembered as “Mrs. Elechi”, I felt that too much time had elapsed since we last met.  She would surely have retired ages ago.  So you can imagine my surprise when my gaze caught her familiar face.  Timidly I asked the librarian her name and to my amazement, the same golden voice answered with the warm, generous smile I remembered decades ago.  The words, tripped out of my mouth… “Did you know you inspired one of my art works out there?!”  Delighted, she immediately went out to view the piece with me… I hoped she would like it.

Drawing us in, the journal page ignited a discussion on the positive impacts of literacy on young lives; and the hopes that many librarians have that in every group of children they encounter that they can touch at least one life through reading.  I let “Mrs. Elechi” know how it had transformed mine.  Raised in an overly-protective family who had recently immigrated to Canada from Pakistan, I was unable to visit or make many friends outside the home.  Reading allowed me to connect with Canada, as well as “travel” to places and discover things beyond my physical realm.  Much like the internet today, it made me feel like a citizen of world.  It was a practice I passed on to my younger siblings; our trips to the Ottawa Public library became an important family ritual.  Through our discussion, I found out a few things about “Mrs. Elechi”, too.  First, she was Italian and not Hungarian as my journal page noted her!  Kind soul, she soothed my anxiety about this by assuring me many others had confused her accent for Hungarian.  Also, that she still works at the library from time to time and reads to children (even her grandkids in the United States).  After all these years I learned her full name: Grazia Lecci (and its proper spelling!). 

It was wonderful to re-discover and share my page with Grazia.  It made the act of creating and displaying my journal page about her more precious and complete.  Meeting her again renewed my faith in the goodness that can be found in life.  I was told later by her department head, Elizabeth Thornley, that our meeting that day was by great chance as Mrs. Lecci is posted at several library locations across the city and that her appearances at the main one are rare.  I was so fortunate that fate had brought us together that day; it was the perfect ending to my exhibition.  Echoing Mrs. Lecci’s sentiments Elizabeth reminded me how much her fellow librarians love to hear that their work touches the lives of those they encounter in a meaningful way.  As an artist I feel this way, too.  In Italian “Grazia” means “grace”; in Latin a variant of “grace” means “favour” or “blessing”… a blessing is certainly what Grazia Lecci was in my life along with countless other lives she transformed through her readings!