We visited our good friend, the poet Mary Kellogg today at the Holcomb Adult Residence in Granville, N.Y., where she has been living since she fell down in her house and broke her hip. We are publishing Mary’s fourth book of poetry this summer and she plans to be at our Open House on Columbus Day Weekend.

Her hip is healing but more and more, it looks as if Mary will not be going home to her beautiful farm again.

It is a painful thing for her to acknowledge, but she has always been a brave and honest and authentic realist. She does not flinch from the truth. She likes the Holcomb residence, she likes not having to cook, clean, she likes having help when she showers, she likes having people around to help her if necessary. The staff is wonderful, she says, and the other residents are very nice.

She loves her farm very much, it sits on 30 beautiful acres and Mary has lived there alone in the more than 20 years since  her husband died. She went to rehab and a nursing home after her fall, and then to Holcomb to rest and, it seems, to live.

She is accepting this with her usual grace and faith and courage. Her very loving daughters are keeping Mary’s house and she can visit it as often as she likes. She’s coming to visit us at our farm in the next couple of weeks.

Mary is an iconic figure, a gifted poet and animal lover and conservationists. She is a great inspiration to me, and she is also very close to Maria. Her decision to stay in the Holcomb residence seems a wise one to us, she is understanding and accepting that she can’t quite care for that  house and farm by herself, she needs help with her life.

She loves gettiing letters from you, she tries to answer all of them, she admits to forgetting a lot of things these days, “I am after all, 89,” she says, laughing. She does not forget the letters.

Mary discovered today that there are other poets at Holcomb, she’s thinking about starting a poetry club there. She looks good and has not lost a bit of her radiant smile and positive view of life.

We dropped off some books for her, and got some poems in return. She is talking about a fifth book. Mary personifies the term “indomitable.” Red came and charmed the other residents.

You can write her c/o Mary Kellogg, the Holcomb Adult Center, Granville, N.Y., 12832.  And thanks.