Where I First Met Charles – Back to Hartland Next Week

                                       Cromaine Library, original wing, c.1927

Nearly eighteen years ago I met Charles Novacek for the first time. It was in the original Emil Lorch designed wing of the Cromaine Library in Hartland, Michigan. We had been “matched” by two women artist friends and library patrons, Electra Stamelos and Lula Nestor. I had been the library director at Cromaine for over twenty-one years.

“After our meeting I felt a strong attraction to Charles. He was charming, witty, and disarming. I had a job I loved for twenty-one years. I was divorced and self-sufficient. I knew I would not be the love of Charles’ life, but I would be his last love.”

We married in October 1996 about eighteen weeks after we met. I left my job at the end of the year to live with Charles in downtown Detroit.  We were in love!     

So much time has passed since those happy days and my beloved Charles is gone. Next week I will be returning to Hartland for two events. On May 9, 2014. I am honored and delighted to be invited by the Library and Friends of Cromaine Library to speak about the publication of Charles’ award-winning book, Border Crossings: Coming of Age in the Czech Resistance and for a gala opening for an exhibition of Charles’ paintings. Read the excerpt from the library newsletter below outlining the events.  

Albeit bittersweet, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to tell Charles’ story in the place where OUR story began.