The “Heroes Work Here” sign we put up at the Mansion a couple of months ago was sagging a bit. We went to the Mansion this morning to tidy up the sign and hammer the stakes more tightly into the ground.

At the Mansion, the aides, the heroes, are still there and still working very hard.

While there,  two aides came out to tell me the story of Charlie, a Mansion resident and passionate fly fisherman who came to the Mansion during the pandemic and has been in isolation for months.

I don’t know Charlie yet, but I have heard about him. There is some concern about his morale; the pandemic took quite a toll on residents an as=da

He had a hard time during the pandemic, cut off from fishing and friends and family. He was getting very depressed. Shiela, an afternoon aide at the Mansion, decided to take Charlie out fishing on her own time- the first time for him in more than a year.

He is apparently, an experienced and skilled fisherman.

They say he came back to the Mansion on the fishing day a changed person, happy and eager to re-engage with the world. The aides say the change in mood after fishing w astonishing.

He did make two requests, and the aides passed them on to me:

-An Umpqua Glide Fly Fishing Fly Line Dressing With Dressing Box. He also asked for a DVD called The Gumball  Rally, which I got for him on Amazon.

-In addition, I bought him a Magreel Fly Fishing Flies Kit with a box, dry wet flies, nymphs, and streamers for hunting.

All of those are purchased and on the way. I’m looking for a couple of Fly Fishing books to fatten up the package. I’m zeroing in two,  The Longest Silence by Thomas McGuane, and The Essence Of Fly Casting by Mel Krieger.

It is the small acts of great kindness that lift me up the most.

It is a wonderful and meaningful thing to know something we do is bringing a smile to the face of someone who hadn’t dared to smile in months.

It doesn’t take a huge amount of money to brighten the lives of people in need, especially those on the edge of life. I’ll introduce myself to Charlie next week.

I’m told Charlie has plenty of fishing rods, and I look forward to meeting him.

I told the aides to let me know if he needed any more fly fishing items he wanted. I’d like to figure out how we can get him out on some regular outings to the Battenkill River this Spring and  Summer.

By being allowed to go into the Mansion, I’m getting back into a good groove and learning who could use some small acts of great kindness.

(You can contribute to the Mansion Fund via Paypal, [email protected], or Venmo, [email protected] by check. Jon Katz, Mansion Fund, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.)