I got a lovely letter this morning from Marie in New Jersey, she has been reading my blog for a while.

“When you were falling in love with Maria and writing about it,” she wrote, “it made me think twice about my own “love fatigue,” and that animals were easier than humans (ha, hah, ha, which I still believe. But it opened my heart to the partner I have now. A man who has been my partner since right before Hurricane Sandy hit us here at the Jersey Shore and during the present crisis. Life is better with him in, but I owe that to your blog posts during that time…”

Marie also sent a check for $20 for cigarettes for Georgianna at the Mansion. She is sending the check, she said, in honor of her mother who passed away in 2019. She raised nine children and always said it was the cigarettes that got her through it.

Thanks for this letter, Marie, and for your donation also. Messages like this make me feel my life has some meaning.