Patrons I will miss the most

For various reasons, I don't have as many personal relationships with patrons here in Michigan as I did at my original library in Texas, but there are still people who it will be kind of hard to say goodbye to when I move. Here are the top 5:

1. Mr. Timmons, who brings me candy every time I see him, and tells me 50% outlandish stories about his crazy former life in New Orleans, 50% about what his grandchildren are up to and how proud he is of them.

2. Jack, the elderly regular at Small Town Library who apparently shares my skepticism of religion, and also told a really moving story about his life in a storytelling program that I facilitated in the winter. He always has something friendly and/or funny to say to me whenever he comes in.

3. Janis. She can be trying to deal with sometimes, but she appreciates the library so much. If I'm having a day where I feel like my work is pointless, seeing her come in reminds me of how much the place I work enriches people's lives and makes me feel good about my job again.

4. The tiny man with the taped-together glasses who comes in every morning to read the newspaper and who I also see outside the nearby government building every Friday with anti-war, pro-tolerance protest signs. Not only do I share his political views and appreciate his unfailing politeness, it will just be weird not to greet him as the first act of my shift every week.

5. The lady in my book club who always listens to the books on audio, and who always says the opinions on the books we read that I want to say but am not supposed to since I'm just supposed to be the facilitator. She also said such a nice goodby and good luck to me when I told everyone I was moving away.

I thought I'd end this with a nice picture expressing the idea of the post, but I got really sad when I looked. If you are a fellow librarian, I recommend against Google Images searches for "library goodbye." Here's a hint of why:

Source: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMKiS2Hu73naGhExUmL4VsPnJ5N-ONlDTLAsNnfPgypWuvks7Fm9RRwHU1wetxh7LRhtMxyFTt9VcAs7nNKFgJKlc3mNzOzHXU52EmbRp8LTMUa4E88Y1EAhvSqgUSFVtG6oZd3KvVyaU/s1600/Goodbye+walls.jpg