Grandpa Can Read E-Mail Now
Word of mouth helped this Long Island man find help at Literacy Nassau

Johnny Gilchrist held a steady job for 28 years, raised a family on Long Island, N.Y., and sent one child to college–even though he was barely able to read. For decades, while Gilchrist was working full-time at a warehouse, there was no chance to improve. But when he retired he found himself with time on his hands, so he vowed to master the skill that had eluded him since he was a child.

Even with many of life's biggest accomplishments behind him, learning to read was a challenge because Gilchrist had always struggled to decode words longer than dog or cat.

"It's hard, when you're 60 years old, to tell people you can't read as good as a second-grade kid," Gilchrist says.

One of the first obstacles Gilchrist had to overcome was being unable to read advertisements about adult reading programs. So he relied on word of mouth. One day he took his two grandchildren to the Roosevelt Public Library to play computer games. He couldn't read notices on the bulletin board, but a friendly staff member there answered his questions. That's how he learned about services offered by Literacy Nassau, a ProLiteracy America affiliate.

Gilchrist came back to the library a few days later and was tested. Six months passed, and Gilchrist feared he had been forgotten. But then the phone rang and he was told he'd been assigned a tutor. Carol Davan has been working with him ever since.