Jenny: We did this story activity in our Campbell County Public Library. I was struck by the fact that in the room next door, just a few years ago, in the fall of 2022, I had met my now-husband in that room right next door. He was an English professor at the college here and had lived here, moved here shortly after my first husband passed away in 2017.

And in that time period, those five or so years, we had never crossed paths, even though Gillette is not that big, and I was an English teacher, and he was an English professor; still never crossed paths. And so we were at a meeting with a bunch of people who wanted to protest what was happening at our public library.

We, as English teachers, English professors, my now husband and I, Caleb is his name- didn't like what was happening with the collection development policy. We thought it was leading towards book banning and whatnot. So we were gathered at that meeting and happened to sit next to each other. And while it, there, it was all serious and business and activism and all that kind of stuff, we both felt chemistry and a spark from the moment that we sat next to each other.

And I was immediately drawn to him because he was sharing with me how he was going to teach a book-banning class at the college the next semester and talking about the books and titles, and he was also drawn to me for whatever reason. There was something about me that just caught his eye.

And so ever since we met that moment, the fall of 2022, we kept finding excuses to bump into each other. So he emailed me. I created a book club so that we had excuses to keep running into each other. And then it was a matter of months before we started dating. And so that's my little library story of love.

And the thing that we talk about a lot, Caleb and I, who's my now husband, is that you just find love where you least expect it. And I had been alone since my husband passed away, and he had-- my husband, Caleb, had a series of girlfriends but never married. And, so we both realized that sometimes you have to put yourself out there and, uh, not, uh- Uh, or put yourself out there and the unexpected could happen at any moment.

So we share that with other people as well. You just never know- yeah... when love may happen.

Abdalrahim: Okay. Yeah.

Jenny: Yeah. So it was a dark time; it was a hard, stressful time in Campbell County at the library. But it still brought us together, so we have a happy ending for sure. Even though the library still is struggling a little bit with some of the implications from that time period. So yeah.

Abdalrahim: Wow, That's amazing

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.