I love watching Maria and Mary Kellogg together, they are both beautiful and strong women, each in their own way, each at different points of life. Maria and Maria became instant friends a decade ago, just as Mary and I did.

Mary was the first person to tell me Maria and I would be a great match, she has always supported me and supported us. When Mary and I became friends, she showed me the poems she had been writing since she was eleven (she had never shown them to anyone) and I loved them and showed them to Maria, she and I had just become friends.

One of our first acts of friendship was to collect some of Mary’s poems and publish them – My Place On Earth. The book has sold several  thousand copies, we never had the money to market it in the way it really deserved. We did publish three more volumes of her work, including the new one This Time Of Life.

We would be thrilled if Mary continued writing poetry, but it doesn’t seem likely, I have to be  honest about it.

Mary has always known where she is in life and accepted it, her love of nature and independence were always stirring to us, in a sense she became a surrogate mother to Maria, someone she could always talk to.

Mary came along when I was at my worst, and her support and love were and are so important to me. I’ve never heard Mary complain about anything, but accepting the reality that she is unlikely to ever return to her farm at age 89 was difficult for me, I can only imagine how it feels to her.

She will accept it with her usual stoicism and bravery. She is planning to come to our Open House. Even though she sometimes struggles with memory problems, she lights up when she sees Maria and the two of them talk openly and honestly and with great feeling to one another.

I am so lucky to have two such amazing women in my life, and if these two women can love me as they do, there must be some good in me.

Audio: There Must Be Some Good In Me