Like most of us these days, Lauren Ubaldo could use an escape.
The West Seattle resident is a house cleaner who owns a business with her husband, and work has dried up for now.
So she turns to The Seattle Public Library and its collection of eBooks and audiobooks, which makes being home all day a little less isolating.
“I have the high of going on a shopping spree, but it’s all free, which is really great,” she says.
It’s this outlet that compelled her to give to The Seattle Public Library Foundation for the first time, during April’s Library Giving Day campaign. She’s thankful to maintain easy access to digital materials while her neighborhood Library, the Southwest Branch, remains closed.
“It was just a little something I could do to help out the Library,” Lauren says. “I just was really appreciating that we still had access to books to read or listen to – 10 to 15 years ago, we wouldn’t have had that.”
Lauren grew up in a small town in Michigan, about four hours north of Detroit. She fondly recalls her mother taking her and her sister to the local library, where they would browse the stacks and sit to read. It always felt like a special day.
Now she can carry a semblance of that feeling when she peruses the titles on her e-reader.
“It’s a good way to keep your mind from reeling and taking your mind off things you can’t really do anything about,” Lauren says.
Lauren has been reading “If Beale Street Could Talk” by James Baldwin and murder mysteries by Anne Cleeves.
“Murder mysteries might not seem light,” she says, “but the way they’re written is a little lighter and it’s an escape.”
Welcome to the Foundation family, Lauren!