A small shed is on a property near the ferry in Pettes Cove, NB, in Grand Manan.
The shed is white with green moldings and a black roof. Any other shed in the backyard looks like.
But it is full of hundreds of books, a legacy of the late Anneke deichmann Gichuru, in a wide range of themes.
“When you enter, the collection is very strange,” Ben Abramson, a neighbor and resident of Grand Manan from season,
Unlike a library or library with organized sections, “this is a memory of a former prime minister, together with a French school book, together with a literary magazine in Nueva Scotia,” says Abramson.
“It really is like a treasure search.”
Only a small sign that reads “free books” is an indication of what is inside.
But it was that signal that caught Theresa Smith-Linton.
“The grass was long, and I just said that if someone can give free books, why can’t I take 10 minutes of my day and help help the person?” She said.
Smith-Linton cuts the lawn for several other people in Grand Manan. Before he met the woman who directed the “barn of the book”, he was in charge of cutting the grass around him.
Two years after cutting the grass, Smith-Linton finally met Deichmann Gichuru, who insisted on paying for work, and looks inside the shed.
“The books, most of them are older, but some of them are really ordered,” said Smith-Linton. “I took two.”
Life knowledge search
Deichmann Gichuru had a love for reading and love for learning. Born in 1938, he attended UNB of history and literature. He later became a teacher in Kenya, where her husband was.
“Growing up, she always read us, that was our daily night routine,” says daughter Wandia Gichuru, who lives in Kenya but was achieved in the United States “, the books were so great of his life, that I think it is wonderful that he could spread some of that.”
At the end of the 90s, from Gichuru returned to New Brunswick to take care of his sick mother, Erica deichmann Gregg. Erica deichmann Gregg and Kjeld deichmann, Anneke’s father, were renowned potters.
“My grandmother had a house in Grand Manan that she used as a summer house,” Gichuru said. “So my mother moved and basically lived there throughout the year, although she was not really built for winter.”
Many of the books that ended in the shed come from the Deichmann Gregg collection, or that of her second husband, Milton Gregg.
“I don’t know exactly, but there were definitely more than 15,000, maybe about 20,000 books,” Gichuru said.
They sat intact for years until Deichmann Gichuru decided that they should not accumulate dust in the basement.
“She only decided that she loved them in the world and wanted people to read them,” Abramson said.
Joined
Grand Manan has a population throughout the year less than 3,000. Deichmann Gichuru was an integral part of that small community, as a member of the Rotary Club, a local choir and manager of the Grand Manan Museum for several years.
“I was alone, but not only alone because I had a very wide circle of friends and was very committed to the community,” Abramson said. “She was a really fascinating person.”
Deichmann Gichuru died earlier this year, but Abramson decided to keep the shed open and continue giving books.
“If you have ever heard the expression, every time an elderly person dies, a library burns. During your life, it collects a lot of interesting information and context,” he said.
“I think for her, this was a way to make sure that many of the books that had fed her and made her as intelligent as she was, she wanted other people to have access.”
Gichuru agrees. “This is exactly what I wanted,” he said.
She says the family has no plans to sell the house soon.
“Three generations, my mother’s children, grandchildren and great -grandchildren, were there last week, and we felt their spirit,” he said.
“We fell in love a bit with Grand Manan. So I would not be surprised if we cling to him for a while.”
