Bob Schally and his wife, Ruth, liked to sit on a bench outside their yellow St. Paul home, keeping an eye on neighborhood children skateboarding down the street and watching the seasons change.
It wasn't a regular bench. Maroon and plush, it used to be the back seat of an old pickup truck. After his wife of 60 years died, Schally sat on it alone.
That's where he was when the little girl who lived across the street came to visit him and give comfort in his grief — a bittersweet moment that inspired her mom, author Kao Kalia Yang , to write the award-winning children's book "A Map Into the World." In its pages, Bob, Ruth and their bench are there in vibrant illustrations by Seo Kim.
When Schally died last May, his family wrote in his obituary that he was a "teacher of life and a book inspiration." They also decided to give his special bench to Yang. She was moved to tears, but felt it would be "selfish" to keep it for her family alone.
"I knew Bob had children and grandchildren. I knew the book was in the hands of children across these cities," Yang said. "I wanted it to be in a public space. It belonged to a memory bigger than my own."
So she donated the bench to St. Paul's East Side Freedom Library , an independent nonprofit now housed in the building that was her childhood library.
In the picture book "A Map Into the World," which was published in 2019, Yang writes from the perspective of a young Hmong girl named Paj Ntaub, who moves with her family into a new home. She is a careful observer of the world outside her window, including her elderly neighbors.
In real life, Yang and her family noticed the Schallys across the street, sitting on their bench, when their Realtor first took them to see the house that would become their home. The elderly couple and Yang's young family — twin boys soon joined her daughter — became friends, and Schally enjoyed sharing vegetables from his garden.