A voice in the dark

A volunteer lends her voice to record her narration of books for those in need.

Sue Ketelsen spends hours reading aloud to herself in a quiet corner of her basement - sometimes until her voice gets hoarse.

Sitting behind a microphone, the 60-year-old Davenport woman clicks on a blue table lamp, turns on a digital recording system and picks up the latest book on her reading list: "Beekeeping for Dummies."

But she's not a beekeeper. She doesn't aspire to become one, either.

Instead, Ketelsen is recording herself reading the book, from cover to cover, for someone she doesn't know: A blind person who requested it through the Iowa Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped in Des Moines.

[Beth] Hirst, with the Library for the Blind, said patrons sometimes request Ketelsen as their narrator because of her "nice, pleasant, fluent voice," she said.

"She's also very good at interpreting what she's reading," Hirst added. "It just draws you into the story."

A voice in the dark

Thank you Sue.