Ｍy "New Career"

Jacinto Ku

       This is my "new career". I now volunteer at Leu Gardens. This is a 50-acre garden donated to the city of Orlando in 1961 by Mr. and Mrs. Leu– obviously they were very rich and generous. I work in the library on Saturday from 1-5 pm. Very few people come in to the library. They go straight to the garden. I usually have the whole library (which is about 20' by 25') to myself. I can read their books or bring my own books or iPad.

       As my shift is on Saturday afternoon, there are always some weddings booked. I enjoy watching happy and well-dressed people passing by the library on their way to the garden. And this is the annual "plant sale" weekend. I was shocked to see cars parked from blocks away and hundreds of people packed the place. There are about 50 venders, along with Leu employees and expert volunteers answering questions. An old French lady in my Pilates class is a volunteer at Leu Gardens. She was a biology professor in a local (central Florida) college for 30 years and now she leads tours for groups.

       Well, I am happy in the library reading.

       The garden closes at 5. As I lock the door of the library, I always think of the movie "It's A Wonderful Life": George begs Clarence the angel to tell him where Mary is, and Clarence cries out, "She's closing the library!" That is always one of my favorite movie lines, and now I get to close the library!

Here are some pictures of my library:

The library is between the front desk/lobby and the doors going out to the garden, so every visitor passes by my door.

It's a rather small reference library. In the foreground in that short bookcase are all the books we have for children.

This bay window looks out to the garden. Sadly, the computer does not work. There is a copier and it doesn't work, either. My on-job training took all of five minutes. This is very different from the hospice! But I really enjoy the almost uninterrupted reading time in this beautiful atmosphere.