I wanted to remind the many friends of the Mansion out there that July 4th is approaching. I can’t tell you how much the residents of the Mansion appreciate your letters and cards and photographs. Any photos or messages about the Fourth of July would be appreciated, as there will be a fireworks celebration and part there, they will be using the new picnic  table and chairs you bought for them.

Your messages, gifts and packages have transformed the holidays for the Mansion residents. For many of them, holidays can be bittersweet, they think of different times and miss their fuller lives.

“When I get these letters,” Madeline told me yesterday, “I feel as if I have a family again. I don’t only have memories, I have real people writing to me and thinking of me.” Yesterday, Jane was writing a long letter to Joleen, who lives far away, Sylvie was writing back a new friend in Texas, Peggie showed me photos people’s dogs she has received in the mail, Connie was reading us from a wondrous stack of letters.

This exchange has changed and brightened lives, it is a wonderful thing you are doing.

If you wish to mark the Fourth of July in some way, it would be an apt and fitting time not only to love our country but these good and loving people who live on the edge of life. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the American spirit.

You can write to the Mansion residents at 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Here is a partial list of the Mansion residents, the ones who wish to receive your messages. They will all benefit from any other gifts or ideas that can be distributed. And thanks.

The names are Bruce, Allan, Sylvie, John Z, Tim, John R., Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Connie, Alice, Madeline, Mary (a great cat lover), Barbara, William, Brother Peter, Diane, Helen, Jane, Dottie, Anita, Richard, Gerry, Charlotte, Arthur, and George.

Gratitude for the Army Of Good, spreading  your magic.