Sherry Frazier of Van Buren Township has been collecting nutcrackers of all sizes for more than 30 years and, so far, she has about 100. She really hasn’t counted them.
When Christmas or a birthday came up, it was easy to know what to get Sherry as a gift and her collection grew.
All of the nutcrackers, from the five-foot drummer boy to small snowmen, and every size in between, are on display at the Belleville Area District Library during this holiday season.
Frazier, a retired school librarian, works part-time at the district library reference desk. She decided, since she won’t be decorating her home because of her husband’s long hospitalization, that she would, instead, offer to decorate the library with her treasures.
She also used the bright poinsettia pot, put together by her mother, and some bright-red, lifelike, double amaryllis blooms as part of the decorations.
The more showy nutcrackers decorate the computer table between the main desk and the reference desk. Another whole display is in the children’s area. That shelf has Humpty Dumpty, a fireman, a baker, a carpenter with tools, and dozens more of other charming characters. It’s hard to remember when viewing the display that each one can be used to crack a nut.
Sherry’s husband Wayne Frazier, a retired school teacher from the Van Buren Public Schools, has been hospitalized for 160 days, as of last Wednesday. He’s at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital’s seventh-floor Select Specialty Hospital currently, waiting to get strong enough for a surgical procedure to insert a tracheotomy stent.
Sherry said she goes to the hospital every morning and evening. Besides her part-time work at the library, she is an elected trustee on the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education, and a Realtor who is dealing with the labor-intensive short sales now so popular.
She said she saw no sense in decorating their home for Christmas since she spends so much time at the hospital, so she just hung a wreath on the door and is sharing her precious nutcrackers with the public.
Wayne was recovered from a stroke when their oldest grandson, Alec Abbasi, suggested a trip to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Alex had taken to pushing his grandfather in