Hug your favorite librarian.

Our Tuesday story hour closed with the announcement that Miss Josefina Rodriguez-Gibbs was retiring and wouldn't be returning after the break in September. The library wasn't going to host a Spanish story hour in the fall. My heart sank. She's also the only librarian hosting a Spanish story hour in the city and brought it to several branches during the week.

In a year, August has learned several songs in Spanish and knows her Spanish alphabet, colors and numbers. Miss Josefina was someone she liked to tell the other people in her world about and someone she looked forward to seeing and delivering exciting news too once a week. August and I had both fallen in love with Miss Josefina and her hour of stories, songs, lessons with puppets and activities was something special. I had never experienced or witnessed a richer story hour and felt she was on par with Mr Rogers or Captain Kangaroo.

Once we completed our activity, a summer hat, August rushed to show Miss Josefina her creation and asked for a stamp. I explained to her then, that we wouldn't be seeing Miss Josefina for story hour because she was going to stop working and start relaxing. That we weren't going to see her every Tuesday like we have. I could see it in her eyes that she understood. I was sure of it when she gave Miss Josefina a hug and kiss.

When September arrives we will attend a different story hour and we are excited about that. I am happy that Miss Josefina is embarking on a well deserved retirement. I'm thrilled that August had such a wonderful librarian in her life at such an impressionable age. Librarians are important people.