This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

This is our American stories.

And up next, a listener's story from KWKKC 1340 AM in Abilene, Texas.

Jay Moore is a retired history teacher who's known for his fascinating and humorous presentations

about his own city's history.

And today Jay brings us a story from the area.

It's a deeply personal one about his grandma.

Here's Jay.

It was after my grandmother had passed away that I realized just how deeply her lack of education embarrassed her.

I think it was a secret shame that she carried.

In her naughty pine panel den, there were bookshelves that were filled with hardbacked books. That was the room that she

used the most, watching her soap operas or crocheting, working a jigsaw puzzle, visiting with family

members. But I never one time saw her with one of those books in her lap.

Following her death in 1992, it was my dad who came to own the contents of those bookshelves.

And so one day I sat down to look over the books and see if there were any that I might enjoy reading. The first book I picked up was the historical fiction of Catherine Marshall that was titled Christy.

On the first page, I saw in my grandmother's familiar handwriting that she had written this.

This is one of the best books that I have read.

For that reason alone, I thought I might like to read it as well,

and I started a stack to take to my car.

Picking up another book, I noticed the same handwritten notation in a 50s-era novel.

Ditto for the third book and the fourth book, and really nearly all the rest.

...