Pay It Forward

Have you experienced something of great worth passed on to you? Your grandmother’s engagement ring perhaps, an aunt’s old diary or even a piece of furniture that has been passed on from generation to generation? I have.

This set of books have been sitting in one same spot even before I was born. They have always been set in a huge bookshelf in my Grandparents’ home. The Books of Knowledge intrigued me when I was beginning a relationship with reading. They were situated on a pretty high shelf and I remember my nine-year-old self pulling a chair, climbing on the bottom shelf, then reaching for one particular book. My favorite book had the story of Lousia May Alcott’s Little Women in it. I’d spend hours devouring that story, pretending I was Jo on some days, Beth or Amy on others. Meg was too grown-up for me then so I didn’t imagine myself playing her.

Summer afternoons were spent getting to know the world through these books. I’d look forward to visiting my Grandparents of course, but I also enjoyed sitting on their living room couch with several books beside me. Little Women was always part of my reading list. My Grandfather would stay in his own chair and watch TV while I’d sit there oblivious of him, lost in the world of the Marches.

Then I grew up and didn’t touch those books for a huge number of years. I had encyclopedias now and a library card. I also began reading Nancy Drew mysteries shortly after. The Books of Knowledge stayed in their own dark corner.

Then my grandfather died. I wrote a eulogy for him, and I had to go through a lot of digging in my memories of him to come out with just the right words. I didn’t get to write about The Books of Knowledge in my eulogy, but I highly associate them with him.

I have inherited The Books of Knowledge. They’re still there in their dark corner on the high shelf. I can’t bring them to our apartment because we don’t have space for the books, but my heart is at peace that I get to take care of these books. When I have a bigger place, I will put them in their own special spot in a huge bookshelf, on a high corner where I would need to pull a chair to stand on and climb the bottom shelf again to get the book with Little Women in it.

	An old pic of Wowo making “mano” to my cousin Max, taken in the mid-90s. That’s his living room corner chair. The sofa behind Max is where I would read the Books of Knowledge.
	No one sits there now but his memory lives on for me not only in the stories we share but in the little things he has left behind. The little things that we now have to take care of.

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Thanks for those books, Wowo. You shared your love for reading with me and I am truly grateful for that. I promise you I’ll take very good care of these books. I promise you that I will pass on our passion for reading to my future children too and proudly share with them that these Books of Knowledge were from my only Wowo.

Hi! I'm Toni Tiu, and I've been blogging at at Wifely Steps since 2003. This started as a blog to help newly weds adjust to married life. It has evolved into a home and parenting blog. I write about things close to my heart -- good eats, good reads, family, marriage, and the little things that make everyday happy.