In September last year, Halie McEachen, a life-long avid booklover, died three days after her 45th birthday in Wakari Hospital after a long battle with multiple sclerosis (MS).
Her father, Stu McEachen, of Mosgiel, decided a fitting tribute would be to build a Lilliput library outside his home.
It was the 395th Lilliput library, he said.
"One of the things Halie loved to do was she had a carer push her around to the Shop ’n Taieri where she would buy second-hand books, then get them to push her around all the Lilliput libraries to fill up.
"She did that for about three or four years before she passed away."
Ms McEachen was diagnosed with MS at the age of 24, "and just gradually got worse and worse".
The MS eventually affected her optic nerve and she was unable to read as she used to, and instead made the switch to audiobooks.
Mr McEachen estimated his daughter listened to about 1000 audiobooks in the year before her death.
"She was wheelchair-bound, but she couldn’t push herself ... Halie was just stuck in her wee flat, in her chair, and so every day she’d get up and listen to her books."
On her 45th birthday, Halie’s family and her friends — some of whom she had known since kindergarten — all went to Wakari and bought cakes, food and presents to celebrate.
They held a big party for her, and three days later she died.
"So, it was a bit sad," Mr McEachen said.
When building the Lilliput library, he wanted it to be as bright as possible, as "Halie loved bright things".
"The Lilliput library has only been up for about three weeks, but we filled it up with books when we put it up there, and I don’t think there’s any of the original books in there ... it’s always changing," Mr McEachen said.
