Reading Keeps Her Going
(A Talk with Longtime Meredith Resident and Former Meredith Public Library Trustee Carol Euiler)
by Matthew Buteau, Meredith Public Library Adult Services Librarian
Ninety-five-year-old Carol Euiler comes to the Meredith Public Library at least once a week to check out several books. She always has a smile on her face, a pleasant attitude, and a kind word for the employees. Recently, a new employee had trouble finding Carol’s account in the computer. (She has been a patron at the library for over sixty-five years. She’s definitely in the system.) Despite the fact that Carol uses a walker to assist in her mobility, she maintained her smile and patient composure through multiple tries on the employee’s part. In fact, Carol told the apologetic employee to take her time and not to worry, because she was in no rush!
As I finished working with another patron and helped get Carol’s account on the screen, I immediately decided that I wanted to have a chat with Carol to ask her the secret to how she stays so positive considering everything she must have seen and gone through in her lifetime. Carol graciously agreed to spend some time with me sitting down for a delightful chat in the comfortable chairs by the fireplace in one of the library’s front Historic Rooms.
Carol’s first response when asked about staying positive in life was, “Reading keeps me going! If I couldn’t read anymore, I’d be all done!” She mentioned a favorite novelist from when she was younger named Taylor Caldwell who, it turns out, wrote over forty books.
Carol revealed that her reading genre choices have evolved over the years and she keeps up with current novelists too. She mentioned Kristin Hannah whose novel The Women has been all over bestseller lists (and Meredith Library reserve lists too) for the past few months. Carol felt a special connection to the characters in The Women because they are nurses in the Vietnam War. In real life, Carol was also a nurse herself and she knew women who were nurses serving in the military during that time. She expressed wishes that she still had their correspondence from that time period.
In addition to the genre changes, Carol’s preference in print size has also changed. She now prefers large print editions. She made a point to say, “Erin is wonderful. She has done a terrific job implementing such an extensive large print collection.” (No audiobooks for Carol, though. She says she still likes to “hold the book.”)
Speaking of Library Director Erin Apostolos and how things have changed at the Meredith Library over the years, Carol said, “Things have changed dramatically since Erin took over. There are a lot more programs, especially for kids and teens.” Carol was also excited about the community outreach the library does which brings in patrons in various ways.
Turning back to my original question I posed to her about staying positive at her age, Carol said she has learned to accept things as they come. I told her that was a great life philosophy that I am still working on myself. She smiled as she explained that things change and we have no control over them. She said, “We can only control our reactions – and our reactions should be to accept the changes.”
That led me to asking about her background because I imagined she must have seen a lot of those changes to accept in ninety-five years! Carol was born and lived in Massachusetts for the first 30 years of her life. As a self-described “Boston city girl,” it was quite a culture shock for her to move in the 1950’s to what was then extremely rural Meredith, New Hampshire.
In Boston, she had grown up with, went to school with (in a graduating class of 350 students) and made friends with people of all different races, ethnicities, and religions. She found little to no diversity when she moved to Meredith. She said that she remembers missing that aspect of city life and wishing her children who grew up in Meredith had the chance to meet different types of people as she had in her earlier life.
Of course, Meredith was a wonderful place to raise children. Carol loved how her kids could go out and play in the woods all the day and she never had to worry about them. They knew they had to come home when the whistle from the mill downtown sounded.
I asked her about the biggest change she’s seen in Meredith over the years. As one might expect, she cited the transition from rural residential town to tourist resort town. I also asked about changes in the world, those types of things that, per her philosophy, we may just have to accept whether or not we think they represent real progress.
Carol thought for a moment and responded, “Life was a lot easier and simpler in the past. There is too much media today. When we were younger, we only had the radio and that was enough. Now, everything is electronic. Children have their faces in their cell phones all the time and they lack imagination. It’s a case of having friends versus technology. In the old days, instead of spending time on electronic devices, people interacted with each other at stores (which were closed on Sundays) and at churches and church events.”
Broadening her observations, she continued, “The country was more united. People went through things together. First, there was The Great Depression. Then there was World War 2. People approached things the same way.”
What is one change Carol hasn’t seen in her lifetime, but wishes she had? There was no hesitation in her answer. “Peace in the world.”
I also gave Carol the chance to reveal any “crazy stories” from her many years as a Meredith Public Library Trustee. She politely responded, “I really can’t think of any.” I’m betting discretion was another thing she wisely learned along the way in life!
(Photo Information: Top photo - Photo of Carol Euiler which ran in The Meredith News on April 14, 1966 with a caption reading "Mrs. Robert Euiler left and Mrs. Andrew Marks, co-chairmen of Friends of the Library enjoy music on the new record player recently acquired by the Meredith Public Library." Bottom photo - Carol Euiler visiting the Meredith Library in Summer 2024.)