Grace, May God Hold You in the Palm of His Hand

Jun Gromet 6/9/2012

Ms Jun Gromet speaking

Grace left us quickly and suddenly. There are no words that can express the sorrow and emptiness I feel in my heart.

I first met Grace in 2003. She was tall, pretty, and had a cheerful smile. The first thing I told her was "I applied for your position as well, but you got it", we both laughed. In recent years, as we sat next to each other at the reference desks more and more, we got to know one another better and better. Since we had similar background, we became friends.

Today, as a friend and co-worker, I am going to share with you some things I know about Grace.

Grace was a devoted daughter, wife, and sister. I know from the conversations we had how much she loved her husband, her parents, and her brother. How worried she was about her aging parents in China. She talked to her parents in China over the phone every day and visited them every year. As a matter of fact, she just came back from China having stayed a few weeks with her parents. Since we both have parents in China, we very often consoled each other to ease our worries and concerns. Last year, her father had a fall on the stairs and was rushed to the hospital. She felt so anxious and uneasy about it, and kept updating me with the progress of her father's recovery. Whenever holidays approached, she would be on the lookout for good gifts for her brother.  She always said she felt very guilty because she left her brother alone to take care of her parents. Many times I had to comfort her by saying that she was doing the best she could.

Grace was a great friend. I am sure everybody who knows her very well would agree with me on this. She was happy, fun, easy going and warm hearted. In the central library, the Chinese staff tend to gather at one table for lunch and talk, most of the time, in Chinese. So it is a lunch break, as well as a tongue break. Everyone seems to have their favorable seat at the table, and Grace’s would be the one right in the middle at the far end facing the doors of the cafeteria. If she got excited during the conversation, she would make gestures while talking. No matter what we were discussing, whether planning our vacations, reporting on recent trips, telling the jokes or exchanging the news, Grace was able to bring laughter and warmth to the conversation. In her division she was an active organizer of all sorts of events, helping set up the farewell, retirement and holiday parties.  When anything happened to the family of a coworker, she was among the first to help collect the contributions and bring in the cards.

Grace was a dedicated librarian and employee. Grace's commitment and dedication shone through in everything she did: Combined reference desks? Teaching at the workshops? Conducting telephone and chat references? Crazy working hours? She never complained about all these changes and new responsibilities. Instead, she saw them as opportunities to learn and improve. Her Chinese collection is one of the most circulated collections in the central library. Even during the time when we had enough staff, the high volume of turnover would generate huge work loads in the collection development, not to say there were a lot of more duties added to her shoulders since the central library staff began shrinking. Nevertheless, she always worked on her collection whole heartedly. In the mornings, she would arrive at work early. By the time most of the people arrived, she would be already pulling her truck to load Chinese books for merchandizing. Grace was a good worker, she was fast and efficient, and few people could compete with her.

It was last May or June when I first found Grace lying unconscious on the ground at work. After that, she fell a couple of times more both at home and at work.

Grace, I remember the morning before starting work, you came to my desk and told me you fainted again at home. While you were describing to me what happened, you cried, and I cried with you. Until today, few people knew the kind of agony and suffering you were going through since you began to lose consciousness without knowing why. But you smiled as usual and worked as hard as ever.

About 5 years ago, Grace started sending emails to a list of friends. Those mails included: beautiful pictures, funny jokes, medical advice, bits of life's wisdom, or contemporary issues ... whatever she got in hand and felt worth sharing with friends. From all those emails, we knew and felt her faith, her intelligence, her interests, and above all, her sense of humor.  She would title the subject of her emails with things like: laugh you to death; you have to read this no matter how busy you are; forward this to another people, okay, you may save a life; don't take life too seriously…no one gets out alive!

As one of the power point files Grace sent us said, no matter who, you can offer only a period of companionship to your loved ones: your parents, your spouse, your siblings or your friends. Grace accompanied us long enough to leave us many fond memories that we will cherish forever. Grace loved to travel. She used to tell me she loved "the feeling of being on the road". Now she is on the road to her new life.

Our Dear Grace, Goodbye!

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again,
May god hold you in the palm of his hand.

（Ms. Jun Gromet is a senior librarian in the Central Library, Queens Library)

Ms Jun Gromet & audience