Remembering Sara

Christmas is a time for remembering. Here, we remember a particular Friend to the Library. In mid-October, one of our good friends Joseph Boughey led a Remembrance Event for his beloved wife, Sara Richards.

Sara died unexpectedly in April this year, much to the sadness of the Gladstone’s Library community.

Sara was, and Joseph remains, deeply involved with the Library and encouraging of its vision, and Joseph decided to commemorate Sara by supporting the refurbishment of Room 2, something Sara had been keen to do before she died. The room has now been renamed in her memory.

At the Remembrance Event, Joseph oversaw the official renaming of the room, which now bears a brass nameplate, and attendees gathered in the Chapel to share their memories of Sara.

Joseph said: “Sara had been in a book group since 2019; among the members were two artists, one of whom unexpectedly brought me a portrait of Sara, while I commissioned a painting of the Vale of Clwyd from the other.

“Sara had founded a little group called Merseyside Stitchers in 2018, and five members (out of seven!) attended, bringing with them a quilt (a work-in-progress) which made use of materials that we had found in Sara's craft room.

“I had found two framed embroideries by Sara, while the Stitchers brought along other work, including a Quaker-influenced tapestry style piece, which used some of Sara's threads. In the long interval, both artists and Stitchers talked about their work and how Sara had influenced them. One read out a moving tribute that she had just written, very much from the heart.

“The rest of the Event was taken up by my own account of Sara's life. I illustrated this from the large collection of photos and followed her life through two themes, the first, "A Life in Houses", and the second, her favourite places. I choked up at several points. I finished the first session with excerpts from two piano pieces that had been specially composed for her in the late 1980s.”

The painting commissioned by Joseph is a dreamscape of places dear to the couple. A replica will be displayed in the Sara Richards room.   

Joseph extended his heartfelt thanks to those who attended, despite flash floods and traffic jams around Hawarden.

The delays led to a touching moment where those who managed to arrive on time decided to share unscripted recollections of Sara, which Joseph said, “Introduced a camaraderie among the attendees, and memories began to flow, then, and in the interval.”

He ended: “To set out and celebrate the good things about someone's life is to invoke and press home the magnitude of what I have lost.”

We at Gladstone’s Library feel it is a privilege to have known Sara and are proud and grateful to have been able to call her a Friend.