Search Results for: bingo night at the mansion

It was definitely a dark and stormy and cold night, but we had a full house for Bingo night at the Mansion. Maria and I took turns calling out the numbers, our friend Susan Popper helped the residents figure out their cards.

On the way, I stopped at Stewart’s a convenience store chain and got some got gift certificates to pass out to the game winners. I have never played Bingo and needed a little help from the residents in figuring out how to work the ball holder.

The surprise for me is that I was so excited to be there, and had such a good time being there. Several of the residents needed  help, some couldn’t move their fingers quickly, others missed the numbers on their boards that matched the number of the balls.

We backstopped them, laughed with them, cheered them on. There was a sweetness to the game Peggie was intense, Mary was quiet, Wayne was focused, Ellen thought she couldn’t figure it out but she did. As it happened, everybody who came won a game and a free gift certificate, they can get coffee or ice cream or a snack or magazines at Stewart’s, which was a big deal for them, lots of whooping and clapping when they won.

There was something tender about the evening, something cozy and familiar about laughing with these people on this icy, black and snowy night. Maria and Susan felt it too, this was where we belonged Friday night, this was where we wanted to be.

It felt as if we were with the families we never had, we were able to bring much joy and pleasure to people on a winter weekend night when the Mansion was eerily quiet, most of the staff gone, the nightside aides checking on everyone

Something peaceful, something meaningful, something deeply satisfying. They all asked me if I could come back and do Bingo again, and they promised to teach me some other games, and I said I would be delighted to come  back and run some game nights with them. And that is the truth, I would.

It was a very special night for me, and now, at least, I have learned to play Bingo.

Last week, the Mansion Activities Director asked me if I could help them find a new bingo game, Bingo is popular at the Mansion and their old set had deteriorated.  This, I thought, was a perfect case for the Army Of Good, a small thing in many ways, but a big thing to the people in the Mansion.

Bingo is activity almost anyone can join, and prizes are awarded, people look forward to it.

So I got on Amazon right away and found this “State Fair” Bingo game and it came right away and makes it’s debut at 6 p.m. in the Mansion dining room. I know some of the staff have to stay late on Friday to play, so I volunteered to run the game myself. The residents got excited that Red and I were coming to join them for the new Bingo game.

This was exciting to me. I have never played Bingo in my life, I have no idea how it works. I’ve been boning up at the Mansion, taking the game apart and getting some lessons.  Maria might join me, and our friend Susan Popper, who is in town for a couple of days, and is a veteran Bingo player.

I’m not sure why I’m so excited about it. I love learning new things, of course, but I also love the connection of running a game that gives people pleasure and stimulates them. They don’t have the freedom I have to go out to the movies or dinner whenever I please, or just take a drive around.

I don’t know why the idea gives me so much pleasure, maybe I just like the idea of belonging. That has not always been my story. The Mansion residents and i are comfortable together, we trust each other and feel at ease with each other.

I love the mission we are on: small gifts of great kindness.

Somehow, this is where I belong tonight. I’m going to go out and buy some prizes, a gift certificate to a local convenience store and some sparkly stuff at the Dollar Store.

I was at the Mansion Tuesday for our weekly rehearsal of “Night Of Four Skits,” four short plays written for seniors by Bi-FOLKal Productions, with minor modifications by Susan Ostrowski and Dr. Peter Dixon of reading2connect, the publishers of the reading and memory books I’m reading at the Mansion.

We have about 6 weeks of regular rehearsals, and that, I think is a good thing. I guess i’m the Producer and Director. I was an executive producer once, but that was in television, and I did help direct a news documentary. But this is quite different.

We assembled the cast today for the rehearsal. Barb, Joan, Allan, Sylvie, and Peggie have all agreed to be in the show, Madeline also, she was resting from a cold. We have some practicing and polishing up to do, but we had a spirited rehearsal.  I took a video  with Barb and Allan performing, they did a great job playing a jaded married couple. The skits are short and funny, the actors and residents love hearing them.

Joan can’t see the script so me or a member of the Mansion staff will whisper the words into her ear, and she’ll shout them out on our “stage.” She’s excited to be in one of the skits.

Theres one about going to the doctor and getting ready for winter as well.

We’ll rehearse again next Tuesday. The performance will be held in the Mansion Great room at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday in May (still figuring out the exact date.). Families and residents will be invited, people from town can come also.

I’ve got to figure out some special lighting, the Mansion will offer some refreshments. This is great fun, hard work for them, but the rehearsals are paying off. Each actor will have a script to read on stage, and I will be right alongside to help if there is trouble.

Friday, another milestone. I volunteered to run the Friday night Bingo Game. It will be my first bingo game. Maria and a friend are coming also (whew.) Everyone seems excited.

Take a look at the video below.

As soon as we got back today, Red and I went over to the Mansion Assisted Care Facility to see the letters that so many of you have been sending to the residents there. Everyone there is a bit overwhelmed and surprised by them, and so grateful, the letters have been pouring in from all over the country – Colorado, Mississippi, Alabama, California, Massachusetts, New York, Maine, Florida, New Jersey -and are being read and discussed all over the Mansion.

Peggy, above, has some in her room, the bulletin board above in the hallway outside of the activity room is now dedicated to the postcards, letters and messages still coming in. I mentioned last week that if anyone wished to write the residents of the Mansion – Red and I have been doing therapy work there and some have been visiting the farm – they could do so: Residents, The Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

Honestly, I didn’t know if anyone would respond. In our culture, writing a letter takes some work in our world: envelopes, stamps, pens or computers, getting to a mailbox. I know it isn’t that much work, but in the age of e-mail, it takes some thought. E-mail takes seconds, which perhaps is why it is so less meaningful.

Red and I have been visiting the Mansion and meeting the staff. They are beaming about these letters, they are  impressive, full of caring and energy. They do very hard work and, like the residents, are not recognized often for what they do and who they are. You will not see them on the news.

The letters are diverse, they contain photos and some anecdotes, there are sketches and postcards and photos as well.

I was  touched to see how much your letters matter to them, on behalf of the people who live at the Mansion. They know how much it means. I can’t fully express what it meant to me to see those letters up on the bulletin board. All I did was mention the idea at the end of one portrait caption.

The messages and cards mean a lot to the residents. Only some of the letters can go up on the board at one time. Those letters are points of light, small acts of kindness and generosity.

A staff member at the Mansion mentioned it to me over the weekend and Monday was the first chance I had to get over there. Peggy and the other residents were excited about the letters. Peggy took Red and I over to see them, and she pointed out four or five that were addressed to her and which complimented her on new new red hair coloring and blue fingernails.

Some letters are addressed to individual people I’ve been mentioning, but many are addressed to the residents in general, and  they can be shared with everyone.

“These are so wonderful,” Peggy said, “I love them” and she read me everyone that mentioned her. Peggy’s daughter is taking her out tonight to play Bingo, she said, and she was bringing some of the letters with her to show them around. She and Red are particular pals by now.

Life is challenging inside of institutions like the Mansion, small things make a difference. These are small acts of kindness and thoughtfulness in a world that sometimes seems hateful and cold, but they echo on a much larger  scale on the other end. They mean, to the people who receive them, that they can experience one of the sweet pleasures of life, that they can be noticed and cared about and seen.

We have pushed the elderly out of sight and consciousness, they are not anyone’s favorite political issue. Your letters have made them count. Given the chance, people are good.

Thank you, and I don’t wish to take advantage of anyone’s good will, but if you care to continue sending these lessons, you will brighten the world and the lives of good people by several measures. The address is Residents, c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.