NEW SHARON — The trustees of the Jim Ditzler Memorial Library were presented a check for $25,000 Tuesday in memory of a woman who grew up in town and always considered it home.

Ernestine Dakin Rose died in May at the age of 91, her daughter, Deborah Rose, said during the presentation to trustee Maynard Webster as other trustees and selectmen listened.

“She always thought of New Sharon as home,” Deborah said, even though she attended Boston University, married and remained in Massachusetts.

Ernestine and her husband, John Rose, were both teachers and returned to New Sharon summers to camp in Vienna and enjoy the sunset views from land they owned on Cape Cod Hill, Deborah said. Remembering those good times, the younger Rose wants to donate the land to the town for others to enjoy. She said she hopes to place an engraved picnic table and create a trough for people to get water from the well on the land.

The approximately three-quarter acre of land must be accepted by voters, probably during next March’s annual town meeting, Webster said.

Meanwhile, the library trustees will consider how to use the money for a library housed in a farmhouse that was also an unexpected gift from the Jim Ditzler estate, trustees Shirley Martin and Marilyn Neal said.

“We’re excited to say the least,” Neal said, while explaining how other donations, including rugs and the work of volunteers, have turned the house into a beautiful and better facility than what was the town’s previous small library on Route 2.

“It’s good for the community,” Selectman Russ Gardner said while explaining how library visits are up.

The trustees will consider some capital improvements, air conditioning and new card catalog software, Webster said.

Rose thought her mother would like those ideas, she said.

Her mother was a library trustee in Lynnfield, Mass., where she lived. She also wrote the town’s annual report for several years and was active in the town historical society, Rose said.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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