SHARE

High Point Public Library SHARE Their Materials With Homebound Readers

         Mary lived in High Point her whole life. At 88 years old, she was bedridden and resided in a nursing facility. Despite the long lifespan and her personality, which had remained full until the day she died. Mary was never a big reader, for pleasure or education. She was even unfamiliar with the American Classics; Dickens, Scott Fitzgerald, etc.

         With excursions to the library impossibly difficult, Mary’s unspoken need for reading material was answered by the public library themselves. The High Point Public Library’s Senior Homebound Adult Reading Enrichment (SHARE) program offers a free service that delivers library materials every 6 weeks to those who are unable to make it to the library by themselves. It’s not just private homes, but nursing, rehab or assisted living communities as well. The program usually has 15-20 enrollees and 6-8 retirement facilities, many rotate in and out.

         When Mary had passed away, she had only been an enrollee of SHARE for a couple of months. For that time, she couldn’t get enough books from the library. The books she was reading at the time still had the bookmarks in them.

Pam Lyon

       Pam Lyon works in the library’s reader services and spearheads the SHARE program. Every week, Lyon receives SHARE enrollees’ material requests. This can range from books, audiobooks and movies. On Wednesday morning, Lyon takes one of six delivery routes with the requested materials. While stopping at homes, she also stops at the Meridian Care center and the Emmanuel Senior center. 

         “Basically, if they could check it out in person at the library, we can deliver it to them,” said Lyon, “Taste ranges just as you’d expect among any group of readers. We have some that read only fiction; others prefer non-fiction, some want books on CD due to vision impaired by age or illness and many request large print.”

         Lyon spends the first part of her Wednesdays with people like Mary, bringing them library supplies for weeks or in some cases years. Another elderly woman, Mrs. Burnett is an avid reader and piano teacher, who spent several years in enrollment. Before her back surgery, she would often help out with work at the library.

         “We like to think of SHARE as bringing the library to avid readers who have always used to library, but miss it due to physical limitations. Reading is often something they can still enjoy, even if their other activities have become limited,” said Lyon.

         Lyon continues to receive requests and carry them out on a weekly basis in the SHARE program. 

Mrs. Yarborough, SHARE Enrollee

       According to a 2016 study at the University of Yale, researchers concluded that readers tend to live longer; “book readers experienced a 20 percent reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow-up compared to non-book readers,” they reported online. Juanita Yarborough, a 91 year-old resident of Guilford, retired nurse and SHARE enrollee gives credit to her genetics over her reading.

         Due to her impeded mobility, Yarborough enrolled in the SHARE program. Most recently, she’s finished Bill Clinton and James Patterson’s book, The President is Missing. She’ll read about politics, but will choose a mystery at times and a fan of fast page-turners.

         “I’ve always enjoyed reading when I’m home,” said Yarborough, “My mom read, and my parents were well educated, formally. But they were readers, we always had books and newspapers in our house.”

         From the age of 17, Yarborough would become as sharp as tack, entering the diploma program at the High Point hospital. When she finished in 1948, she would work in Greensboro during the Polio epidemic in two hospitals, some of which were modified facilities. The Greensboro News and Record building was used for recovering soldiers from WWII. Yarborough later graduated from Queens with a Bachelor’s Degree and started teaching in 1955. She would later on become an education consultant on the North Carolina Board of Nursing.

         Here, it seems that reading doesn’t nurse a reduction in risk of mortality, rather it seems like hard work and nursing others makes a longer life and a sharper mind. One that will always enjoy a good read.