Real-Life Stories With Happy Endings

I was very moved by “A Woman of the Word,” your Jan. 26 editorial about Helen Myers and her valiant efforts, against the odds, to keep the value of reading alive in her small community of Ellisville, Ill. She is not alone.

A woman I’m proud to call my best friend has pursued the same goal, but by different means. Every morning of the week, Betty Goldberg drives her fourth-grade son to Roosevelt Elementary School (in Santa Monica) and, upon arrival, walks him to the schoolyard and transforms herself into “Betty Spaghetti” the story lady. For roughly 20 minutes, Betty reads aloud to any and all students who care to drop by and enjoy a story before starting the school day. She has become a fixture on the playground, unheralded but not unappreciated.

It seems a simple act to take the time to read, to share and to inspire the joy of reading. It just takes those rare few who are willing to do so. Betty offers a model worth emulating on playgrounds all over the city and perhaps, in time, all over the country.

Linda L. Kent

Los Angeles