Today is Jim's birthday. Jim and his wife, Nancy, are owners of Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh.
I first met Nancy years ago, when my children were small. Her bookstore was much smaller too, but the children's department was a dream for a young mother. Years later, the bookstore moved to a shopping center near my house, and we became friends.
Jim and Nancy are now two of our best friends. They also had their thirtieth anniversary this year, and we're planning a great trip to celebrate. It'll be on a boat. It takes a special group of people to get along on a trawler for a week, but they are just the kind of people you want.
The two of them have worked together to grow an award-winning bookstore. The bathroom walls are lined with photographs of appreciative authors, and people come from out-of-town to visit the store.
A person could not ask for better friends than the two of them. Nancy tells it like it is - a welcome quality in a friend even if sometimes her telling requires some self-examination. Jim is calm and even-tempered and as knowledgable about wine as anyone I know.
I'm grateful for these two in my life, and wish Jim many, many returns of his birth day.
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