Our dear friend, Brenda Langham came to
talk to us about her bookmark collection. She brought quite a few with her, she
has altogether thirteen and a half thousand! She brought the one that started
it all off. Brenda had worked at Waverley college in Nottingham as a librarian.
Many times the students would leave their bookmarks in the books and Brenda and
her colleagues would always check them when they were putting them away, they
would pin the bookmarks to a notice board for the students to collect. This particular time just before the college
broke up for the summer holidays there on the board was a bookmark that hadn’t
been collected that had a little bambi on it and 'here is where I fell asleep' written on it. So Brenda not wanting to leave the little bambi alone in the collage for six weeks took it home, that was forty years ago and the
rest as they say is history. In 1984 Brenda was invited to show
her collection, she had 449, a friend of hers who did craft work made one
specially for her with her name and 500 on it.
Brenda appreciated the beautiful penmanship of the bookmark made especially for her
the bookmarks are made from varies material, paper, card, metal, fabric
but in the main they are leather
When Brenda moved to Derbyshire she went into Ripley library to see if they would be interested in displaying some of her collection, they were and so she did. A young girl who was in the brownies saw the collection and found it interesting and decided to collect bookmarks for her collective badge. Brenda was invited to show her collection at the brownies and then at the WI. The collection grew as did the invites and Brenda went to numerous places to share her interest.
One interesting bookmark that she received through the post was furry with a little red tongue and if you put on the carpet and stroked it, it moved. Or if you fid it difficult to bend over it would also do it on your jumper.
you can read some of the history of the humble bookmark here; Bookmark Shop
Someone once asked Brenda what her collection was worth, she answered that it was priceless as far as she was concerned and there was no way that she would sell it. There are memories attached to many and they are reminders of places she has visited, people she has met and of people who have given her bookmarks for a gift. All in all it was very interesting and we all got a chance after the talk to have a look at part of Brenda's collection.
David reminded us before the closing prayer that we are all precious in God's sight, we have been bought with a price that can never be repaid, the price of the sacrifice of the Son of God at Calvary. And we are all unique, some of the bookmarks were looking a little worn around the edges, some had blemishes and were far from perfect. We too have blemishes, we are imperfect, we are sinners but through the blood of Christ we are forgiven and receive eternal life. When we are in our eternal home the blemishes will be gone, we shall no longer be worn around the edges, we shall be perfect and we shall spend eternity with our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful hope and assurance we have if we are in Christ Jesus.
