The Mansion residents now get a lot of letters, which they love, but I am also learning they send a lot of letters. I came across a touching scene in the Mansion hallway yesterday, Joan and Julie (the Activities Director) were sitting and talking, they were absorbed in conversation,and Julie was taking notes.
I asked what they were doing, and Julie said they were sending messages to one of their regular letter writers, a woman in North Carolina who had cancer. She had written to one of the residents about her cancer, and they decided to write her regularly, and offer her the same kind of support many of them had been getting from people all over the country.
Julie asked some of the residents for ideas about what to say to this woman. They have been writing to her for some months now.
One message urged her to “live life to the fullest.” Joan wrote, “I’ve had cancer, I know it’s scary but knowledge will help.” Peggie asked her to have a great summer. Another resident urged her to “hang in there.”
The Mansion residents are no strangers to cancer, one wrote “I’ve just completed 6 months of chemo-therapy with flying colors. Everything is in good shape.” Another resident quoted Philippians 4:12 from the Bible: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.”
Another send this message; “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
The Army of Good has send many things of value to the Mansion residents, from soap to clothes to air conditioners. But nothing has touched them more or mattered more than your letters and photos and messages.
Living in an assisted care facility like the Mansion, the people inside often feel cut off and isolated, as if the world as forgotten them.
I am sharing their stories and encouraging them to write and paint their stories, they are the stories of their lives and their stories are important. Red saw them meeting and joined in, and it was a beautiful thing to see how much these people cared about a stranger with cancer who they had never meet and most likely will never meet.
They are no strangers to fear and loneliness, no stranger to sickness either. And they love to give as well as receive.
Out out of your messages, all kinds of trees and branches grow. If you wish to write the Mansion residents, you can send them messages c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
The residents on the current list are Jean, Peter, Ellen, Mary, Gerry, Sylvie, Jane, Diane, Alice, Jean, Madeline, Joan, Allan, William, John K., Helen, Connie, Robert, Shirley, Alanna, Charlotte, Barbara, Peggie, Dorothy, Arthur, John, Brenda, Bruce.