SOMA Living November 2022

MEET THE LATIMER FAMILY Jennifer Latimer’s home brims with books. They are stashed beside the sofa, stacked on bedside tables, and crammed along bookshelves found in nearly every room. And according to Jennifer, School Media Specialist at Clinton Elementary School, there is always room for more. “I can’t resist,” she says. “Books are a gateway to discovering new worlds and ideas. They can help us not only better understand the world around us, but ourselves.” Jennifer and her husband Patrick, a sales and marketing executive at Jaguar Land Rover, moved to Maplewood in 2000. The couple, who’d been living in Weehawken, loved the friendly feeling and creative community they found each time they visited. “Maplewood was an easy sell,” she said. “While we gave up a direct view of the city, we couldn’t resist our little purple house on a corner.” Jennifer and Patrick first met while working at Ford Motor Company, where they both worked in sales and marketing. After the move to Maplewood, and the arrival of their son Cole, now a 19-year old sophomore at Penn State University, Jennifer stepped away from her career for a few years. It was then that she began volunteering at the Maplewood Library. “I had fond memories of going to the library as a kid,” she said. “One of the joys was having the ability to pick my own books and check them out. For me, it was freedom. Being back in the library as a volunteer rekindled that passion and I knew my life was going to change.” When Cole was in first grade, Jennifer began working as a library substitute at Clinton Elementary School. As she spent more and more time within the space, Jennifer realized she’d found her dream job. “One day I looked up and decided, ‘I’m never leaving this job,’” she said. “I worked as a substitute teacher by day, and took classes at Rutgers at night and online. After two-and-a-half years, I’d completed my Masters in Library Science.”

Photography by Jamie Meier

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