Madeline is 93, she has been at the Mansion a month or so, she is a lot of fun, her friend Brother Pete says she has a lot of the angel, and a lot of the devil in her. She was raised in an orphanage in the Bronx, and  has a thick New York accident. Although she is Italian, the orphanage was Jewish, she knows all of the Jewish prayers and songs, she says she is thinking of hosting a seder next Passover.

She married a soldier, an engineer in the Army and lived all over the country.. When she talked to Maria last week, she volunteered to go to India with her to help the victims of sex trafficking. I am getting to know some of the residents well, our visits are longer and we talk more, I think on all sides, we are more relaxed.

I love the life stories of the Mansion residents, they are rich and touching and always close at hand.

Red knows the Mansion well and is completely at ease there. He makes the rounds, knowing where to go and not to go somehow. Every time I see Madeline, she tells me Red’s collar is too tight. When I got to the Mansion, I loosen it. I admire Madeline’s spirit. She is intensely engaged  with the world, and embraces precisely where she is in life. She lived for a long time in Cypress Hills,  Brooklyn, she considers herself a New Yorker and has the feisty and engaging attitude of a New Yorker.

She is always moving about the Mansion, talking to the residents, greeting visitors. She has enormous energy, and the snappy of a Brooklynite.

Madeline would greatly enjoy your letters and messages, she reads them all and replies to them, they stimulate and engage her. You can write her at this address: Madeline, c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

(If you wish, you can send Valentine’s Day cards and messages to the residents of the Mansion.  Valentine’s Day is Tuesday, February 14. The first names of the residents are Jean A., Mary, Gerry, Sylvie, Diane, Alice, Jean G., Madeline, Joan, Allan, Carl (Bob), John K., Aileen, Christie, Helen, Connie, Alanna, Barbara, Peggie, Dennis, John R., Bruce, John Z.)