The difference between a book hoarder and the owner of a private library

I call [my father] from the car and ask him about his morning, tell him about mine.

"What kind of hoarder was she?" he asks. "Books and cats, mainly," I tell the man who loves his cats and who I know is now actively considering his extensive book collection.

"What's the difference between a private library and a book hoarder?" he wonders.

We are both silent before chuckling and answering in unison: "Feces."

But the difference is this phone call. And the others like it I could make. And how strong we are when we are loved.

Sarah Krasnostein, The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2017), p. 258, Kindle loc. 3586