I was looking for Bill today, I hadn’t talked to him much since returning from New Mexico, I found him sitting in the hallway listening to a crackly radio.  He is in a much better mood than he was when I first met him, I am hoping to find a way for this  oncevoracious reader to read again.

Our road to reading and listening to books is bumpy. Bill put the CD player we got him away, he said he couldn’t use it yet.

I asked him if he could listen to the radio that was in the CD player in his room, and he said he couldn’t, that’s why he comes out into the hall to listen to the radio out there. He said he has made no progress reading the books we have him, and he said he is looking forward to some eye surgery coming up.

But he’s not sure he will be able to read even after that, strokes work that way sometimes, he said, and I know that to be true. Bill seems more connected to other people than he was, and he much enjoys getting messages and letters from the outside world, especially the gay community, which is very much misses.

That’s a challenging thing about this work,  I know, it never goes in a straight line. It is always up or down and back and forth. Bill talks often about re-connecting with his community, and I can see how much that means to him.

I think I’ll try some new and different things for Bill. He is not comfortable manipulating machinery or any kind of technology. He does like being read to, and perhaps I can  help read some of the letters he gets to him, and we can see where that goes. I don’t want to pressure him, but I’d like to keep trying, I think being bored is hard on him, he has a very active mind.

It is important to leave the ego at the door in this work. Some things work and some thinks don’t, and one is always moving on and backing off, and trying something new and re-grouping. One of them will stick, and if not, then there is acceptance. One must never get discouraged or frustrated. We go where they go.

I was going to buy Bill some Armistead Maupin books about gay life in San Francisco, but I don’t think he is ready to read yet, and I don’t really know when or if it will ever be possible. I hope members of the LTGB community will continue to send him cards and letters and messages, he very much appreciates them, these messages are very good for him, they stimulate him to listen carefully and read.

They make him feel known and cared for. Gay or straight,  you can write to Bill c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.