The aides who work so hard at the Mansion are a special breed – nurturing, patient, gentle. This evening, during Bingo, I took a walk through the hallways while Maria called a bingo game.

Tia was helping Alice sit down on a sofa, making sure she was comfortable, talking to her soothingly and softly. It was a portrait of the kind of intimacy I so often see between the Mansion aides and the residents.

Tia is special, she seems so comfortable and natural in this week, I saw Alice lean over to hold her hand, then to kiss it.

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For those of you who wish to write to the Mansion residents, here is a list of the residents who would love to receive your letters. Some can respond, some can’t, I never ask them if they got the letters or are answering them, I don’t want them to feel pressured. But I can tell you they love to get them, it tells them that people in the outside world know they are there and care about them.

The address of the Mansion is 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. The resident’s list is: Ellen, Matt, Mary, Gerry, Sylvie, Carol, Alice, Jean Madeline, Helen, Georgianna, Barbara, Alanna, Linda, Annette, Peggie, Becky, Bert, Dorothy, Tim, Ben, Art, John, Jim, Wayne, Georgiann, Ruth, Julie.

Thanks for writing to them. It means a lot.