I call her the Empress Sylvie, she has the bearing of royalty. When she came walking up, the aides all asked if it was okay to hug her – Sylvie is not much of a hugger. She said okay, but just small hugs, she didn’t want to to fall down.

I don’t hug Sylvie, some people like hugs, some don’t. I am not a huge hugger myself.

Sylvie asked me right off when the Homecoming Party was going to be and I told her about the Chinese food and music planned for Friday, and she said she liked some Chinese dishes, but she hoped there would also be a choice of different kinds of good in case she didn’t only want Chinese food.

I went right in to see Charlie in the kitchen and he assured me there would be alternative food choices for anyone who wanted them. Sylvie has no problem speaking up for herself.

“Oh, good,” said Sylvie, she just wanted to get that straight. She handed me a dozen letters to mail and I have her another 100 stamps to add to her great stamp stash. I now help her address and stamp the letters so more and more are getting through. Sylvie loves letters, you can write her c/o Sylvie, The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

There are rumors that she has a huge stash of stamps somewhere in her room, but I have never seen them and will certainly not go and look for them. That would be creepy and a violation of her space.

I think Sylvie fared better than any of the other Mansion residents who were staying at the Danforth Adult Care Center while the Mansion was being re-modeled. She has a great sense of purpose about her, she cares 14 tote bags around on her big cart, most of them filled with religious tracts, letters and articles her fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses send her.

She tries to answer every letter she gets, she considers all of the senders her “blog friends.” If a letter doesn’t get through because it is mislabeled or has no stamp, she accepts this and considers the letter to be a “prayer.”

Sylvie and I are good friends, we trust and like one another.  She is a wonderful character, she enriches my life. I appreciate that she will ask me for help now, even though she can rarely acknowledge help.  She might think it her birthright.

Sylvie doesn’t so small talk, she has a lot of work to do. Everyone was very happy to see her back home.