Margaret Mary Hjelmeland didn't watch any TV. She read books, though, especially mysteries.
She was a Gwinnett County librarian for nearly 20 years and worked at a Lawrenceville branch where her duties included compiling books for delivery to the shut-ins and homebound.
"Most of them couldn't read because of their eyesight, so they'd listen to Books on Tape," said a daughter, Karen Shaw from Asheville, N.C. "She always talked about them being lonely, and that their family and friends had passed on, so she wanted to give them joy through books."
In 2001, library patrons and co-workers noticed slight changes in Mrs. Hjelmeland's behavior, that she seemed confused. She had to stop work and, years later, was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a hard-to-detect form of Alzheimer's disease.
Primary progressive aphasia can cause people to lose the ability to understand the written or spoken language, so her illness methodically robbed her of the thing she enjoyed the most.
"It was a slow process," said David Hjelmeland, her husband of 40 years. "But it got to where she would struggle to get a page or two read. That was tough for her."
On Monday, Margaret Mary Schmid Hjelmeland of Cary, N.C., and formerly of Sandy Springs, died from complications of her illness at Universal Healthcare in Raleigh. She was 66. A funeral Mass will be held at 1 p.m. Friday at St. Michael the Archangel Roman Catholic Church in Cary. Brown-Wynne Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Hjelmeland was one of eight children born into her family in Green County, Ohio. She earned her bachelor's degree from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, then joined the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, where she was a member from 1963 to 1969.
"She left the convent to have a family," her daughter said. "She decided she wanted kids. My father was stationed in Dayton in the Air Force, and they met after she left the convent."
Before she became a librarian, Mrs. Hjelmeland taught English for several years in Dayton. She returned to school and earned a master's degree in library science from San Jose State. When U.S. Steel transferred her husband to Atlanta, she worked as a librarian at two local colleges, then joined the Gwinnett County public library system.
Sometimes Mrs. Hjelmeland would come home with a load of books for her children to read. Her daughter didn't mind, but Mark Hjelmeland, a son who now lives in Cleveland, didn't enjoy the written word as much as his mother.
"I wasn't a big reader," he said, "but she brought home any books that were being thrown out or discarded for us to read. She encouraged us and other family members to read. She spread that."
Additional survivors include two brothers, Robert Schmid and Tom Schmid, both of Ohio; four sisters, Mary Wiggenhorn and Teresa Wendling of Ohio, Gini Becker of Illinois and Marti Fischer of California; and four grandchildren.
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