I love taking the Mansion portraits, the residents need to be known, but it is also a remarkable experience to get to know them.

We don’t see the elderly, they are almost invisible to us, but their lives are rich and surprising.

Sharon Kenney is, as one of the aides told me, “pretty cool.”

Like onions, they have layer after layer to them, but few people get to look.

Sharon is 71 and has been in the Mansion since the pandemic began. It is painful for her to walk, and she recently was hospitalized for a month.

“I miss my life – cooking, my house, my grandkids, my friends – but I was so glad to come home to the Mansion,” she said, “when I was released from the hospital. I missed it every day.”

She feels safe and well cared for there, she said and has made good and real friends. Sharon struck me as a person of exceptional character.

Because of severe spinal issues, she could no longer take care of herself after a full life as a mother, grandmother, school bus driver, nurse’s aide, and much-published and gifted poet.

I admit I was surprised to see the stack of books that she keeps, all of which include one or more of her poems. She never mentioned her poetry to me, an aide told me. But she has been writing poetry all of her life.

Sharon is a remarkable person. As the interview continued, I was both surprised and impressed. I am constantly reminded never to underestimate the elderly; they are no different than anyone else, except they sometimes need some help.

They are us, or the us we will be.

Sharon worked as a school bus driver and then as an aide.

All of her life, she wanted to be a pathologist working in the coroner’s office performing autopsies on dead bodies. She was always drawn to science and the human body.

She reads Tarot Cards, talks to angels, and is visited by spirits in her room. They turn the lights on and off. I asked for a card reading, she said yes.

When Sharon was in high school, her guidance counselor refused to sign the papers recommending her for a medical college. He said it was no job for a woman; he said she was only fit to work in business.  He would only approve her applying to a business school.

She says this was the only regret of her life, but it was a major one, and she knows it was because she was a woman.

She turned her creative impulses to poetry and short stories, which she has written all of her life.

Her daughters begged her not to go into assisted care, they wanted to take care of her.

“As it was,” she said, ” I couldn’t take care of myself, and my daughters were shopping for me and caring for me. I didn’t want that; I wanted them to live their lives fully as mine. So I came here; it was my idea; no one pushed me.”

She grew up near the Knickerbocker Mansion near Troy, N.Y.; her parents were caretakers there.

I asked Sharon if she would share her poetry with me, and I was shocked when she pulled a big bag with a dozen books, each one of them with some of her poems.

I asked her to show me her favorite, and she showed me a poem called “Daughters,” published in the International Who’s Who In Poetry. She had other poems in several best poets collections.

Sharon always has a serious look about her, I worked hard to get her to smile for the portrait. But she has a big heart.

Here is her favorite poem:

Daughters, by Sharon A. Denny

It starts with their first cry, how precious you realize as each day goes by.

Their tiny hands clutching your fingers, their first smile, however, could you figure?

Papers on the refrigerator, your first teacher’s conference, a skinned knee from the first bike.

A scared hug after the first fight, However, could you know initially?

A mother’s plight?

Sometimes, they look up to me with wonder and pride for all the answers they seek inside.

Should they know, I have not the answer, that I to draw strength from high.

I pray, and I seek and hope I will find, the answers to their questions and try to be kind.

Before I knew it,  young lady’s appeared to my astonishment – oh, dear?

The first school dance and new hairdo, O dear God, what shall I do?

Have I taught them enough? Will they know what to do?

Then, I see my daughters looking back at me with wondering eyes.

Such pride, beauty, saying to me, “Love you, Mom.” 

What more in the name of daughters could they be?”

 

Sharon has two granddaughters she is proud of, one is a vet-tech, the other a “first-class” beautician. She says they are both busy, she doesn’t get to see them as often as she might like. Her daughters are always in touch.

As I always do, I asked Sharon if there was anything that she needed or wanted that I could get or buy for her.

She was shocked by the question; she thought about it.

She said the one thing she had always wanted but never been able to find was a full-size lavender bedspread. But she thought it would be impossible for me to see around this area.

Every time she mentioned a lavender bedspread, she just lit up with a smile. I knew I had to get her one.

I pulled out the Iphone in front of her, and in seconds I found a store that sells only lavender full-sized bed sheets; she was astonished. The bedsheet is on its way and will be arriving at the Mansion Monday.

It was a great pleasure to meet with and talk to Sharon. She’s coming to my meditation class and will bring me more poems to read.  I want to go and see her when the bedspread comes.

As she thanked me and got up to leave, I saw how painful it was for her to walk. I told her I admired her selflessness on behalf of her daughters – this is true love – and I was privileged to get to know her.

Sharon enjoys receiving mail. She will respond if she can. Write to Sharon D. 11 South Mansion Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

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The next portrait on my schedule will be of Patrick, a former professor who traveled the world and needs some new pants.