Madeline is one of the most gracious and interesting people in the Mansion. She is in her mid-90’s, she grew up in an orphanage in the Bronx in New York, she was sent there after her brother stabbed her father to death to try to protect their mother.

Madeline is unfailingly polite and appreciative, she is a former dance and song hoofer who loves to sing and perform.

She is a through-and-through New Yorker, she talks tough but has a giant heart, she  dresses stylishly,  is uncomplaining and most often can be found sitting by herself looking at crossword puzzles.

It took me a long time  sitting with Madeline and Red – she always thinks Red’s collar is too tight – before I realized she wasn’t actually doing the crossword puzzles, she was just looking and them and making marks with her pencil.

From my observation, she was having trouble seeing the small squares and clues. I recently asked Connie Brooks of Battenkill Books if she had a lighted magnifying glass, I had a hunch this might be what Madeline might need to read her puzzles, they are always with her.

Today, I went and picked it up at the bookstore. It looked just perfect for me.

Madeline has never asked for anything, she is the ultimate stoic. I just brought the magnifying glass into the Activity Room, where I found Madeline sitting on a sofa reading a magazine, or at least looking at it and thumbing through it.

Madeline  was stunned when I handed the glass, she refused at first to believe that I had given it to her and knew that she had problems reading.

She asked me a dozen times if she could pay me for it, and then the two of us sat down and she tried to  use it. “Oh, my God,” she said “I can see the letters so clearly now,” and then Madeline, the most reserved and composed of people, jumped up, threw her arms around me, and gave me a great big kiss on the cheek.

Moments like that are rare and very powerful, this is the kind of small act of great kindness that is helping me to feel good about myself.

Once again, I thank the members of the Army Of Good, as I do almost every day,  for supporting this work and making it possible for Madeline to see clearly again, and work on her beloved crossword puzzles.

I asked Madeline if she would ever have told anyone about her problems reading those puzzles and ask for help. She said no, absolutely she would not have, life is not always fair, she said, she would never have asked for  help, it was something she had been living with for years.

I asked Wayne if he needed such a glass and he said yes, he would love to have one. We’ll check around and see if anyone else needs one, I would be surprised of no one else did.

That is my idea of feel-good story. We can’t change the direction of their lives, we can’t work miracles or change outcomes. But we can fill some of the big holes that appear regularly in the eyes of the elderly.

This was one of them.