I never saw Bill as happy as I saw him today, he slapped me on the back, and shook my hand and was beaming, an almost shocking change from a week ago when he said he felt he had nothing left to live for and was ready to die.

Bill said he felt isolated from his community, the gay community, and so I asked gay men and women reading the blog to contact him, and they have transformed his outlook on the world.  He’s gotten cakes and cupcakes and hard candies and letters and postcards and pictures.

What a group of empathetic and skilled writers!

“It feels so wonderful to be in touch with people who know where I came from,” he said. It has certainly encouraged him and lifted his spirits,and I have been reading some of the letters to Bill, along with the Mansion staff, and  he is getting the most wonderful letters and messages.

When I saw Bill today, it was a very hot day, and I was reminded of  his struggles to do some of the simplest things – remember, read, problem solve. He can’t read the letters himself yet, and is getting surgery to help him see.

Bill was confused about the controls on his new air conditioner (thanks, Army Of Good), so I set it on cool for him. The Mansion aides are also working to show him, but as he says, it’s hard still for him to remember those kinds of things, he can’t retain instructions.

I got him a CD player and some mystery audio books, but he can’t remember how to work the controls, we are teaching him a bit day-by-day.

Nancy, from Colgate, Wisconsin, wrote him the most wonderful letter about audio books and how they have changed her life, chronic health problems have prevented her from reading paper books.

“I can’t tell you enough the joy audio books  have given me,” she wrote.”And frankly, to hear how well some of them are read/acted is just phenomenal. It  brings an added texture to the book. It has added so much pleasure to my life to know I am “reading” again. I hope you try it too.” She suggested that we write down simple instructions and leave them on the CD player, which will be a good idea once Bill can read again.

I am thinking of putting a blue tape over the “on” button and a red tape over “off.” I think Bill is not quite ready to control the player, or to focus for too long on the audio. I am thinking it’s critical for Bill to accept audio books, that can help him to connect with his community in different ways.

The transformation in Bill since the letters and messages started coming has been miraculous.

Randall, a playwright/dog walker in Manhattan wrote Bill that he read on the blog that “you wanted very much to hear from others in the gay community, so I am writing to you to let you now that you’re in my thoughts, and that you are not alone. I was sorry to hear about your stroke, and i hope your recovery is coming along, I also wish you well with your eye surgery.

Randall wrote about his adjustment to marriage in 2013. “I really had to adjust to being with someone’s husband. It’ s not something I ever thought would be possible growing up, so it has never occurred to me that this might happen. Marriage has made me less selfish in many ways, and has given me different perspectives on life in general.

It’s not for everyone, but it’s working for us. I don’t take the marriage for granted. Relationships are not fixed; they’re constantly evolving, rotating, moving. So you either keep in motion or you lose your way.”

Randall talked about struggles with weight, meeting Billie Jean King, surviving the cost of New York City, learning Spanish at age 43, going to the gym, taking stretch class.

I love the tone of these letters, literate, thoughtful, funny, and yet familiar.

The writers write to Bill as if they are old friends, and it feels to him that the are friends. I feel that way also, and the letters are not to me or for me. This has re-created to a surprising degree the very sense of community that was lacking in his life, the feeling that he is known. The Mansion residents have welcomed Bill, but have not known him in this way.

So I’d like you letter writers to know that you are doing good, performing magic, and showing me and others what it means to be in a community, something we all crave and can hardly often struggle to find. My town has community, because we are known. It seems your world has community for somewhat the same reason, along with the closeness that comes from generations of persecution.

A gay-straight high school group that lives nearby  is planning to visit Bill in the next few weeks, I hope to explain the reality of strokes, and leave them to talk to him.

Bill has hope now,  I can see it in his face. Thanks so much for that. He is getting letters from straight people as well as gay people, and enjoying them all. You can write Bill at The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.