Alice and I joke about the dates we have gone on – lunch outings, boat rides, bands playing in the Mansion Great Room. We always dance, I always approach my “girlfriend,” and she is alway up for it. She has been staying at the Danforth Adult Care Center and like the other Mansion refugees, is eager to get home.

Her children came over the weekend and took her out to get her hair done.

When she returned, she was eager to have her photo taken, she was very happy with how it turned out. I asked her if I could put her hairdo up on my blog, as I always do, and she said “sure,” that would be great.

In another dimension, this would hardly be news. For Alice, it was big news.

It is important for the residents to have attention paid to them, to still be able to get a nice hairdo and show it off, to feel good about the way they look and flattered that someone is paying attention. To pay attention to their looks.

This week, I find myself in the not unusual position of being in an unwanted controversy, although in the overall scheme of things, not an earth-shattering one. This story is not really about me, or should not be. I apologize if I’ve done that.

I ticked somebody off, somewhere along the line, and my camera got banned from the Danforth Care Center, where the residents are staying. I am uncomfortable finding myself in this position.

But I do need to set the record straight, the downside of the Internet is that misunderstandings and misinterpretations and impulses often take precedent over caution and reason.

First off, the Danforth management was not responsible for my photos getting banned. That was the state of New York. They were asked to post this new dictum and they did.

I can’t quite fathom what their reasoning was,  there is probably some regulation somewhere about it, since I have not been there before.

This does not affect my Mansion work, and since the residents are due to go “home” in a few  days, the Lord and state regulators willing, there is really no point in my whipping up a storm, although I am certainly prepared to fight if I should need to.

I know some people have concluded that the Danforth must be trying to hide something, but I don’t think that is true. The staff and operations have been quite open to me and other visitors.

Other people are making – because of my writing – assumptions about the Danforth that I ought to address.  The Danforth is not the Mansion. It is not in a beautiful old house, as the Mansion is. The owners do not have the same ideas about activities that the Mansion owners have.

It is the Mansion that is quite special, not the Danforth.

The people at the Danforth care about their residents, they do the best they can. They are not evil or harming their clients, they are quite typical of most adult care facilities I have been in – well run, well supervised, the aides attentive and present. People get the care they need.

I wish there were more activities there, but it’s not my prerogative to tell them what to do. And America does not spend much money helping the aged.

The residents at the Danforth seem content to me. No one there has complained to me. It is not for me to judge them and if I have been doing that, I apologize. That feels arrogant to me.

The Danforth residents would love to have a dog like Red visit them, and I think they would appreciate an Army Of Good to support them, but there is only one Red, and only one Army Of Good. And to be honest, there is only one me, and one Maria.

I am not interested in expanding, we all have enough going on in our lives.

I am not looking to start a crusade, but you can see from Alice’s face that she wants people to know she is alive.

She wants to be seen.

That is the focus for me, now and always, that is what we need to think about: the people in elderly care are human beings, just like you and me. They hate and love and hope, just like you and me. When we forget that, we abandon them to an unhappy end. I don’t intend to forget that, my camera gives them voice and humanity. They have been voiceless and invisible for too long, if I am on any mission, that’s the one.

Alice is, to me, the point of taking photographs of the elderly. She wants and needs to be connected to the outer world, she loves getting letters (The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, she loves to dance, she loves to get her hair done and eat special food. Sometimes, she needs special orthopedic shoes to help her walk.)

The truth is, I don’t know what the Danforth does with or for its residents, nor is it my business. I am not the Lord of Assisted Care, or the special police of assisted care. The state seems eager to do that. I am where I belong and will stay where I belong.

As always, I just wanted to be clear. And I am so grateful for your assistance with the Mansion residents during this difficult week. We have done well. I can always use some help if anybody wishes to contribute to the Mansion Fund.

We have our big Homecoming Celebration coming up next week.

You can contribute to the Mansion Fund via Paypal, [email protected], or through my Post Office Box, Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Another reason I take photographs is so  you will always see where the money goes, and to whom. Thanks.