The Island School’s library holds a story both bitter and sweet.
The library, which will be renamed in a dedication ceremony Thursday, commemorates fourth-grade student Victoria Louise Somers, who died last December.
The only child of Alan and Susan Somers, Victoria survived a successful series of operations to correct a heart defect, only to die unexpectedly at age 9 following a seemingly minor illness.
Her death left not only parents and extended family bereft, but devastated the school community, of which the little girl was an integral part.
“I don’t think I truly understood grief before, and certainly not grief that has lasted so long,” said Kelly Scribner, head of the private elementary school on Day Road East.
“We are a family here, at this school. Those students, those classmates, they are Victoria’s brothers and sisters.”
The school community rallied to the Somers family’s aid.
“We didn’t really know many of the parents before, but they sat with us, they took us to lunch, they took us to dinner,” Sue Somers said. “They have become friends.”
The school counseled students and enlisted the school’s “official grandmother,” Pat Hargreaves, to spend several days on campus.
A “grief table” was piled so high with projects that the school had to set up a second one.
Staff and other parents shared memories of Victoria, and of their own past losses.
“After Sept. 11, I had asked staff to contain their feelings,” Scribner said, “but I found I could not do that with this.”
The children wrote poems, letters and stories about their classmate. Their written words seemed a particularly fitting tribute, Sue and Alan Somers say, since reading was their daughter’s passion.
After the first terrible months, the family decided that one way to wrest something positive from the tragic circumstances would be to honor what their daughter’s had most loved.
Victoria’s grandmother, Mary Johnson, suggested they set up an endowment to which memorials could be made.
Victoria’s Memorial Fund will purchase books for the school’s library, which has depended on book donations.
The fund will increase the variety and quality of the library’s collection, and the Island School board of trustees and faculty voted to name it Victoria’s Library.
Embracing life
Visitors to Victoria’s Library will be greeted by the framed image of the 9-year-old – hands on hips, feet planted wide, turning to the lens with a frank and fearless gaze.
She looks like what her teachers and family say she was: “a person who embraced life.”
On the plaque is engraved a quote from Victoria:
“I love to read because it lets me see things in my mind.”
Victoria Somers showed her love of books early on.
“I wasn’t a stay-at-home mom, and yet we spent a huge amount of time reading,” her mother said. “And we passed that on to her, and she loved to read.”
Scribner said that young Somers, while intellectually precocious, was not arrogant.
“She read very early and she read very well,” Scribner said, “but she didn’t lord it over other kids – she shared it.”
Somers soon graduated from “Curious George” to “Chronicles of Narnia,” “Anne of Green Gables” and “Harry Potter.” Another favorite series, her mother says, was “Swallows and Amazons,” 1930s-vintage adventure stories.
Susan Somers said her daughter identified with the book’s energetic protagonist, once saying of herself, “I have a lot of ‘play’ in me.”
She was an active child who sailed, fished, golfed and skied – the latter skill taught by her 80-year-old grandfather, Bob Johnson.
Reading, however, remained her favorite pastime.
Somers still believes that the time she and her husband invested in reading with Victoria was one of the most important gifts they gave their child.
“You get caught up with day-to-day activities, so many people put things off,” she said. “But there is such a huge difference between learning to read and loving to read. I want people to take time to read with their kids.
“I want them to feel lucky to have their kids, every day.”
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The new library honoring Victoria Somers will be dedicated in a ceremony at Island School Sept. 26. For information about making donations to Victoria’s Library, contact the school at 842-0400.
