35 www.CharlestonWomenPodcast.com | www.ReadCW.com | www.Instagram.com/CharlestonWomen This sidebar wasn’t planned, but after an afternoon on Edisto Beach spent chatting with a friend, I knew I couldn’t sit on the information I discovered from her. It’s amazing the things we learn about our friends. We dine with them, laugh with them, beach with them. Yet there are so many goodies to find out over time. I’ve known this friend for the last several years. I knew she was a highly educated former editor and writer. I knew she leaned a little to the quiet side and would never brag on herself, which is probably why I didn’t learn until weeks ago — while sporting a bikini and SPF 30 — that my friend Katie DePoppe discovered the names of the women who began the reading circle at the Timrod, names that had been lost for over a century. “Growing up, the Timrod was always a place of mystery and intrigue,” shared DePoppe. “From autumn walks with grandparents to watch bats circling the roof to discovering the names of the original founders in notebooks that had been forgotten in the library’s records — the day before my final English thesis was due on the subject — the Timrod remains a place of wonder and magic.” Goosebumps rose on my arms as DePoppe recounted finding the notebook shoved into the ceiling rafters alongside a library volunteer. She read each of those names out loud at her thesis presentation. My friend, a mom, a girl next door, a Lowcountry native, resurrected the forgotten names of women who demanded education in the 19th century South. Just — wow. Lorna Hollifield, managing editor Editor’s comment on Timrod Library
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