I can't see... but I can imagine

Being a champion of libraries - and president of the Friends of the Sisters Library - my life revolves around people who love books. Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to meet a lovely woman who has produced a first-rate book about a remarkable grandmother, Persis Beach Bennett.

Grandmother Bennett was born in 1915, and spent most of her life living in Lancaster, New Hampshire. Her four children were also born in the house where she was born, and life was beautiful.

Persis was a very talented young woman and wrote church music while raising her three children. However, about the time her fourth child arrived, life was about to deal her a huge challenge: she noticed she was having trouble seeing.

Medical science in the early part of the 20th Century was not as advanced as it is today. Doctors of that time did not have the tools they needed to counter an unknown cause of blindness, and by 1925, Persis Beach Bennett was totally blind.

For so many people we all know, disabilities are not enough to stop them. So it was with Persis Beach Bennett. She just kept on going, raising her children, writing her beautiful music and bringing joy to others, despite her blindness.

While most of her music was Christian-based and country ballads, she so delighted in her children and grandchildren, that she wrote five songs for and about them. Her delightful songs are a wonderful part of her granddaughter Patricia's book.

As it most often is with stories like these, other people help to make life as wonderful as it is.

Persis Bennett's daughter, Beulah Bennett Sayles, a self-taught pianist and excellent musician, spent many years copying, recording and preserving her mother's music. In later years, as the records became damaged, it was Beulah that wrote the lyrics down and saved the day.

The stories in "I Can't See... But I Can Imagine" are captivating, the illustrations by Sharon Bean are delightful, and the enchanting music on the CD in the back of the book will warm your heart. As you read and sing along, you will find yourself transported back into the imaginary world of beauty and joy of those long ago times of Persis Beach Bennett.