Remembering Dewey

I felt incredibly bereft when I returned from vacation to find that my fellow book-blogger, the friendly and enterprising Dewey of The Hidden Side of a Leaf, had passed away. Dewey has been a presence in this amazing book-blogging community as long as I've been blogging. Her insightful and often funny blog was a place I loved to stop by, and her friendly comments to my posts were always very welcome.

I loved her Weekly Geeks and the many other wonderful things she did to get us thinking and writing and working together. She once stopped by my blog, saying she liked the way I added links to other bloggers' book reviews at the end of my reviews, and she wondered if I'd mind if she made doing that a Weekly Geeks "assignment" for those who wanted to join in. Mind? I was thrilled!

One of the things that I love about blogging is the way we get to bring forward a particular side of ourselves to highlight, and keep hidden whatever other aspects of ourselves we wish. Of course there are other things going on in my blogging-buddies' lives besides the books they're reading and reviewing and thinking about buying, and I don't know why I was so astonished to discover that Dewey had been so very ill and in so very much pain. I'm glad that our community was there as an outlet for her (heaven knows it's an outlet for me!) and I admire how strong and cheerful she was, as well as her commitment to the things she felt were important. The thought of all those piles of unread books in her house gives me a pang whenever I think about it. I will miss her very much.

The above image is a painting by Tamara Berk called "Dawn," and is used with her permission. Other beautiful paintings by Tamara Berk can be seen here.