She seeks out the second and third volumes only to discover that the third is out of stock. Despite her initial surprise, she finds she loves the story though, and is disappointed that it ends with a 'to be continued.' (It is after all only volume one in the series). She picks up one (along with the cookbook she was initially seeking) only to discover that it is a BL (or boy's love) manga. She's rather charmed by some of the newer art styles and a bit nostalgic as she remembers reading some of it back in the 60s and 70s. She looks for the cooking section and discovers the manga section instead. One day on a trip to town, she goes inside a bookstore on a whim. Plot: Ichinoi is a 75 five year old widow who teaches calligraphy. It actually somehow manages to not only pull it off, but does so with a quiet grace. This is one of those manga that honestly, based solely on description I would think could not work.
She described it as 'the most wholesome slice-of-life series I've ever read' and after reading it.
So, this was one a friend of mine kept on telling me I needed to read.