It is with shock that I note the death, at 102 oerthereabouts, of another Book Fair buddy, perhaps one of the most significant, Nathalie F. Alberts. I am sorry the obituary did not mention (or I didn’t catch it) who put the H in “Nathalie”, but she probably spent a great deal of time over her century explaining that it was there. She was the great-grandchild of a man named Eliphalet, though. so perhaps the family LIKED to let people know how to spell names.
Nathalie was not shy about letting people know things, and that is how I got to know her. When the Newberry Library was going through a thin patch, she would tell the institution her great-grandfather helped bring into existence that what they needed was a big book sale. She had volunteered at one her local hospital had sponsored since World War II and she knew it would help bring the neighborhood into the building, raise useful money, and help books from being tossed in th garbage.
She explained this so often, in fact, that the Library decided to go ahead and have a book sale, just to prove to her it wouldn’t bring in enough money to bother with, so she would maybe shut up and let THEM decide how to raise money. Nathalie was always willing to put hr own money where her mouth was (I wonder whatever became of the huge banner she had printed and hung over a bit of the Newberry that didn’t get finished in the big renovation of the early 80s) so she bought an ad I the newspaper, hunting for Book far Volunteers. This caught the eyes of Evelyn J. Lampe, another woman who was not shy about explaining things, especially how to run a book sale. The result was in the low five figures, roughly ten times what the real fundraisers had expected, and the Book Fair Era began.
Nathalie was also one to invest sweat equity, and for years thereafter, she would show up at the loading dock with her SUV packed with book donations she had picked up. The tall, perky lady in blue jeans was a learning experience for staff and volunteers at the Newberry. “She doesn’t ACT like a millionaire!” one of her fans said of her.
We saw less of her as time went on; some busybody doctor probably told her not to risk her back picking up boxes of books. But she would still turn up at library events. No stodgy wheelchair for Nathalie, who drove a small electric golf cart with an antenna that sported a squirrel tail.
Was it an SUV loaded with books or that golf cart with the vinyl leopard skin seat that drove her through the pearly gate of the Great Golden Ultimately? I hope they found her something to do when she got there. Nathalie was also not the type ever to let herself get bored, and she may be organizing an event just inside the gates right now.
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