Many of us loved sitting down with our children when they were little and reading aloud to them. I know I did. I wanted to share my love of reading with them. I don’t have too many memories of my Mother actually sitting down one on one reading to me, but I do have memories of her pulling out the Spanish workbooks that she brought with her from Mexico and teaching us how to read from those workbooks. Many evenings we would gather around in the living room, some sitting on the floor, others on the couch and we would pull out our copies of The Book of Mormon and she would read to us in Spanish. Sometimes we would all take turns reading a couple of verses, but it is my Mother’s voice that I hear more often in my mind.
We are familiar with the poem The Reading Mother by Strickland Gillilan. Especially the last part,
“You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be—
I had a mother who read to me.”
(Strickland W. Gillilan, The Reading Mother.)
Maybe it is time that we inserted the words “I had a grandmother who read to me“. How many times have your grandchildren climbed on to your lap with a book in hand wanting you to read to them. I have at the moment 2 little grandsons living with us, ages 19 months and 4 years old. They love books! There is a red cabinet in our family room that is just for them full of their books. My sweet daughter-in-law will rotate the books. Every day they will sit and read books. When I am sitting down one of my favorite things to do is to have little Benjamin come to me with one of his board books and climb onto my lap so that I can read to him. I have treasured those moments. Especially having grandchildren near.