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The East Hampton Library has a Mother’s Day mystery on its hands.
On April 22, a library patron discovered a poem, carefully handwritten in Spanish and tucked into the pages of a children’s picture book, and brought it to children’s librarians. The poem caught his attention. Who is this mysterious mother-daughter duo, known only by their given names, Carmen and Samantha?
“We find a lot of receipts and weird things that people use as bookmarks, but this is the first time I’ve seen something as sentimental as this,” said Nick Flickinger, a librarian intern in the children’s program.
Two days after its discovery, Flickinger and his colleagues posted the poem on social media. “Help us celebrate National Poetry Month by finding Samantha and Carmen!” the library implored on Instagram.
Poetry month (April) has come and gone, but now Mother’s Day is right around the corner. “It would be great to give it back to her in time for Mother’s Day,” Flickinger said.
He said he and his colleagues turned to social media because the library’s electronic cataloging system has limited ability to search for loan histories. What also complicates the search is that no one remembers the title of the book in which the poem was found. Additionally, Carmen and Samantha could be from anywhere in the library district (East Hampton, Springs, and Wainscott) or even anywhere else in Suffolk County, since books come and go on interlibrary loan quite frequently.
“We had a few people reach out to us saying they saw it on Instagram and loved it, but they didn’t have any information we could use to find Carmen and Samantha,” Flickinger said.
The poem is titled “To My Daughter Samantha.”
“You are now a big girl / you are the most beautiful thing that has happened to me in my life,” Carmen wrote.
The poem continues: “You have grown up so fast / you make me feel like the proudest mom in this world.”
After translating the poem, Flickinger reflected on its meaning. “This could have been something Carmen wrote to her baby, who couldn’t yet hear it with ears that could understand it,” he said.
A few touching lines later, he includes “I love you with all my being.”
The librarians have not given up hope of finding Carmen and Samantha and returning their lost poem.
“We hope it gets some exposure,” Flickinger said. “Maybe it will be seen by a new set of eyes that don’t visit our Instagram or Facebook page. The hope is that someone knows a mother and daughter with these names.”
Anyone with a helpful tip to share, or Carmen and Samantha themselves, of course, are asked to call the library at 631-324-0222.
