To The Editor:

I’d like to share a love story — it begins at our CH Booth library, a Newtown treasure.

When my husband and I moved to this charming New England town, the library was the very first place we visited. Afterwards, we sat on the sidewalk bench out front, enjoying sandwiches from the General Store Deli — a Main Street favorite, feeling both new and strangely at home.

It was a quiet, ordinary moment, and yet it marked the beginning of everything.

We moved here from Westchester County, New York, where life moved at a different pace and scale. The contrast between there and here has always reminded me of the art of painting: a thoughtful composition of light, space, harmony, and heart.

In this town, those elements felt balanced in a way we didn’t even realize we were searching for.

We bought a charming house on Lake Lillinonah with a plan in mind.

Five years, maybe a bit more, and then on to the next adventure — perhaps move to a college town in the Carolinas.

Life however, had other ideas.

Bob and I shared 27 years, 4 months and 16 days loving this town and the people in it.

Now it is my hometown.

Our library remains a symbol of that love: a place of welcome, curiosity, connection, and quiet belonging. It reminds me how a community reveals itself not all at once, but gently through shared spaces and simple moments.

What we thought would be a chapter became our story — and I am grateful every day that it did.

Rosemary Rau

Newtown