Maria wanted to come with me today to see the Mansion residents who have been evacuated to the Danforth Adult Care Center, she and I stopped first at the Mansion to check on the residents left behind there, we then went to the Round House Cafe to pick up some cookies to bring with us.
We were surprised to be greeted at the door by Sylvie, Jean and Mansion Aide Brittany, who was holding Jean’s comfort baby doll for her while they went for a walk through the hallways.
It is always uplifting to see Brittany’s loving and patient with the residents, she was holding the comfort doll for much of the day.
Jean is holding up one of the cookies Maria gave her from the Round House box.
Brittany was working hard to provide activity for the eight or nine Mansion residents at the Danforth, they had told me that they were bored.
One Mansion aide is always available at the Danforth.
My visits to the Danforth have helped me to appreciate the work Julie Harlin does at the Mansion to provide the residents with nearly continuous daily activities from outings and trips to crafts to movies to art classes and readings to concerts from local musicians.
Brittany asked for some help in getting a hold of Word Search Puzzles, which the Mansion residents love.
I got a dozen cookies at a local Dollar Store and will bring them tomorrow (tonight is my first acting class in Bennington, Vt.) I ordered eight of them on Amazon, they will arrive in a day or so.
The work at the Mansion continues, nobody can say exactly when the residents will be permitted to return, it could be as soon as Wednesday, it might be as late as the weekend.
New York State health officials have to okay the resident’s return, they were evacuated hurriedly last week after water began leaking from the roof.
The cookies were a hit, but not, of course, a substitute for getting home. I don’t know when our Homecoming Party will be held.
I can see the strain on the residents from their sudden move out of the only home they know now and into an unfamiliar place. Their fragility and dependence on routine has ever been more evident.
I’ll continue to visit them every day.The flowers on Saturday helped, so did the stuffed animals, and hopefully, the cookies. Tomorrow we’ll add puzzles and animal books to the list.
Many of you are asking if it would be helpful to send packages, thanks but this isn’t a good time. It’s not clear how long the residents will remain where they are, and the staff is extremely busy now. Unwrapping and distributing packages would be difficult.
The residents are scattered in different places.