If you go to the Mansion any afternoon, any day of the week, you will find Diane sitting and singing to the two parakeets in a cage in the long hallway. Animals are very important to many people in assisted care or nursing homes, they are the avatars of life, the life they lived, the life the mourn, they life ahead.

They bring inestimable joy and connection to them. I sat down on the sofa on the other side of the cage with my camera today. Diane has some memory issues, but she is always smiling, always filled with joy, especially when she is seeing Red, or the Mansion cat, or her beloved parakeets – she feeds them every afternoon, sometimes she lets them nibble on a cookie she puts through the cage.

Her songs are sing song, but the message is clear. “I will never hurt you, I will never leave you, I will always take care of you, no sir, I will never let anyone hurt you.”

She sings it every day, over and over again, and the parakeets get excited when they see her, and hop up and down, hoping for food. I imagine the song is comforting to them, they sometimes sing back to Diane.

After awhile, Red comes over to her and puts his head in her lap. “Yes, sir,” she sings to him, “I will always love you, I will never let anyone hurt you.” Red closes his eyes, wags  his tail, put his head on her lap or knee.

She is there every day, every afternoon, her walker parked near the sofa, to the front of the cage.

You can write to Diane c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.