Sometimes, things find their way back home in the most unexpected ways.
Recently, we received a copy of The Walk by Richard Paul Evans—one of those heartfelt novels that reminds you how far you might have to go to find yourself. Fittingly, this particular book took a journey of its own. It was accidentally returned to the Los Angeles Public Library, which kindly sent it back to us with a note. After traveling across the country, the book made it back home, ready for its next reader. A story about a cross-country walk… that made its own cross-country trip. You can’t make this stuff up.
But that’s not all. Another remarkable piece landed at the library—a World War I-era journal kept by a sailor aboard the USS Nokomis (SP-609). This vessel, once a private yacht owned by Detroit’s Horace Dodge, was commissioned into service in 1917 to protect American troops crossing the Atlantic. The journal captures a moment in history—a voyage from Bermuda to France, where the Nokomis safeguarded ships carrying soldiers to war.
To see the writing, to feel the paper and to know that this journal holds the stories, memories and emotions of another human decades apart from this moment, is remarkable. It feels important to hold this journal and to cherish it.
We’re still trying to track down where this journal came from and who it belongs to, but in the meantime, we will be placing it with the Plymouth Historical Museum where its story can be preserved.
It’s moments like this that remind us—libraries don’t just collect books. We collect stories. And sometimes, those stories find their way back to us.
Written by Donna Jackson – Marketing – Plymouth District Library