As I sit here strug­gling for words that could pos­si­bly mea­sure the loss of El­speth Brier­ley, I keep look­ing up from the place in my kitchen where I do my writ­ing and star­ing at the emp­ty stairs lead­ing to her apart­ment in the build­ing next to my home. I was once lucky enough to catch a glimpse of El­speth al­most every day, and that brings back mem­o­ries of her book store, A Dif­fer­ent View.

For those who didn't have the great for­tune of ex­pe­ri­enc­ing A Dif­fer­ent View, it will be dif­fi­cult to pic­ture what a trea­sure that book store felt like to those of us who flocked there. For faith­ful bib­lio­philes who knew and loved El­speth and A Dif­fer­ent View, there is no way I can come close to cap­tur­ing that mag­i­cal place.

About 20 years ago, El­speth had called me on the phone to ask me if I would re­view a book for the book col­umn I wrote. At that time, A Dif­fer­ent View was a quaint lit­tle book store in the an­nex of a frame shop on Mu­cu­rapo Road. She had put a couch in that store for read­ers to sit and pe­ruse books they planned to buy. For many of us that couch; that store be­came a sanc­tu­ary: a get­away af­ter a busy, stress­ful day at work.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/dig­i­tal/new-mem­bers