Search Results for: Madeline

I got a new and updated Mansion residents list today, this is the list of residents who would like to receive your letters, messages and photographs.

You can  write to them as often as you wish c/o The Mansion, 11 S.Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

We have done a lot of good for the Mansion residents, but I think the purest and most enduring good may come from the letters and messages you have been sending them.

Many of the residents tell me their letter writers are among their closest friends, and they wait all day for the mail to come. This is a selfless task, there are often no rewards, sometimes no responses are possible. Sometimes people get sick or go to nursing homes or die.

I can never tell you when that happens, it is agains the law.

Some can answer, some can’t, some can hear the letters but not see them others forget the letters they get seconds after they get them. Giving is the best reward, perhaps the only one.

I have been supplying the residents with a steady stream of envelopes, notecards and stamps so they can reply if they are able.

One of the most difficult things for people in elderly care is their sense of disconnection from the outside world, the feeling of being left behind and forgotten, torn away from everything they know and love. Your messages have transformed this isolation, they feel known, cared for, still recognized as human beings.

Here is the new and updated list as of July 10, 2018.

Bob, Allan, Winnie, Jean, Art, Tim, John D., Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Jackie, Sylvie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Blance, Bill, William H., John K., Diane, Helen, Debbie, Dottie, Ruth, Kenneth, Gerry, Guerda, Wayne, Matt.

Sylvie is working hard to respond to your messages, she sometimes gets the addresses wrong, and considers the messages prayers. Ruth is in need of letters of love and comfort now.

Thanks so much for your letters, they mean more than you might now, I think it was the best idea we have had.

My Mansion work is entirely supported by donations and contributions, large and small. You can contribute by sending a check to the Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].

We are keeping good alive.

We are doing good, better, in the tradition of St. Francis.

There are just a few items left on the Mansion Amazon Wish List, we are seeking new tablecloths for the Mansion dining room. Just need four more sets. Take a look.

I went over to the Mansion today on a het patrol to bring shorts to Wayne, and summer pajamas to four of the Mansion women. It was warm in there, this week, the Mansion can finally turn off the heat, according to state regulations. Joan was in the hallway waiting for me, and I asked her to dance.

She agreed and we danced in the hallway, Joan is always up for fun, always has a smile, always joins in every possible conversation, even when she can’t follow it. She is a pleasure to talk to. We have the best time, I told her she was a “wild child,” and she said “of course, we all are, aren’t we?”

So today was a day for small acts of great kindness.

Some of the Mansion female residents are struggling to stay comfortable in their winter pajamas. I got some light and brightly colored ones, four pairs. Wayne also needed some track shorts to stay cool and move. He loved the three I gave him. Tomorrow, six cushions for the rocking chairs outside on the porch are coming.

Some sore bottoms from sitting out on the porch, the cushions will help, a good Mansion day. Joanie and I had a blast shaking things up. Sylvie needs some pens, I’ll get some tomorrow.

You can write to the Mansion residents c/o 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, NY., 12816. Here’s the new ever-evolving residents list (for those who wish to get mail):

Bob, Alan, Winnie, Joan, Art, John D., Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Jacqueline, Sylvie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Blance, Bill, John K., Diane, Helen, Dottie, Doris, Ruth, Kenneth,  Gerry, Guerda, Wayne, Matt.

Once or twice a week, depending on what her hair looks like, Peggie changes color. Peggie never lets age define her, she is the first out the door on outings, shows up for every Bingo game, gives me the strongest hugs when I see her, loves all animals and insists on seeing the world outside of her room.

This weekend, she told me at the Mansion tonight, she was heading for Boston, a friend was taking her to see the Boston Aquarium tomorrow. She is excited, and eager for the boat trip and the aquarium trip to Schenectady that we are planning in a few weeks.

Her face is filled with character, joy and an appetite for life. She is a great life force, she defies everyone’s assumptions about aging. She told me today she might have a boy friend soon, there was someone she had her eye on and she was going to see what happens.  I hope he is prepared, Peggie is not easily discouraged.

She told me she wants to take him out on a date to the movies and dinner at Appleby’s, dutch treat. She several of her Army Of Good pen pals are urging her to go for it, she is encouraged. I told her she was a remarkable woman.

You can write to Peggie c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. There have been a number of changes at the Mansion – another new resident is coming next week. You may notice a number of names on the former list are gone, I am not permitted to say what has happened to them, or if they will return.

The names on the list are people who wish to receive your messages, letters and photos – Sylvie was reading hers tonight in the dining room and answering as many as she can  – you can write any of them at the same address, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

The names are Bob, Allan, Winnie, Jean, Art, Ben, John D., Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Jackie, Slvie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Blance, Bill, Diane, Helen, Doris, Dottie, Ruth, Kenneth, Gerry, Guerda,  Wayne, Matt.

Thank you for supporting this work at the Mansion. They love  receiving your packages and letters. The Mansion is planning a July 4 celebration and would welcome any help with decorations, gift bags, favors or cookies, etc.  balloons, banners, etc. You know the drill, and thanks.

And thanks for cleaning out the Mansion Amazon  Wish List for the fourth time in a week. Julie put out an SOS for paper cups, napkins and forks and spoons for the July Mansion picnic, they are expecting more than 100 people for their annual picnic for the Mansion and members of their family.

She still needs a few things, I think, but I told her I would get anything that wasn’t on the list. There is nothing on the list at the moment, you bought everything you asked for , and many blessings upon you. As my friend Ali loves to say, this is the greatest thing.

Peggie says thanks.

Wayne has more fun in his wheelchair than most people have in their ordinary lives. He was in a good mood Friday night, sporting one of the new colorful tie-dyed T-shirts we got him a couple of weeks ago. He is, I think, a love child at heart.

Much of the fun Wayne loves to have is at my expense, if possible. Wayne loves to plot tricks and surprises on me, and last night, Maria.

When we came in to call the regular Friday night bingo game, Wayne was smirking and blocking the door. The wooden bingo balls, the ones we use to call the numbers, were missing he said, they had disappeared from the activities room. This alarmed both of us, who headed down the hallway before we heard Wayne guffawing and laughing, and tell Red with great delight, “we fooled them, didn’t we Red?”

Red seemed delighted wagging his tail and getting excited (for Red.) We came back and Wayne was pointing to a corner of the dining room where he had hidden the cage where the balls from which the wooden numbers are turned and called, as one ejects from the bottom of the cage.

Wayne was beside himself for having tricked us, he was laughing and chuckling all night.

Wayne teased me about the trick and then taunted me as I called the bingo numbers. If he didn’t get his numbers, he yelled out, “new caller, let Red do it!” I think Red is on all this. You can write Wayne at the Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge,, N.Y., 12816. He loves getting letters, but he doesn’t have full movement of his arms, so it is difficult for him to reply.

The other residents of the Mansion who would like to receive your letters are Bob, Allan, Winnie, Jean, John, Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Jackie, Sylvie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Blanche, Bill, Diane, Helen, Debbie,  Dot, Ruth, Kenneth, Gerry, Guerda, Wayne, and Matt.

A fierce windstorm and possible tornado tore through our town last night, flattening dozens of big old trees and knocking power out to much of the town, and to our farm. The cable went out just as our Bingo Night was concluding at the Mansion and we came home to sit on the porch and were quickly driven inside by howling winds and rain, clocked at 90 miles per hour in some parts of the area. It sounded like a tornado was roaring over the hills, and we think that might have been what it was.

Trees fell all over houses in town, and the power is till out in many outlying areas. Anyway, the blog is back up, I get nervous when I can’t write. We had the most wonderful day anyway, the refugee soccer team showed up with Ali and their new van, we had lunch at the Round House, then went to see Ed Gulley – it was the kids idea – and their connection to Ed and Carol and their farm was immensely powerful.

The team came to the farm and gave some carrots to the donkeys and watched Red work.

I have some catching up to do on the blog, I’ll spread it out over tonight and tomorrow. After bingo, I helped Jean and Joan to their rooms and went to say goodnight to Madeline, who was sitting in the lounge along, watching TV as she does every night. From dinner on, the Mansion is s  quiet place, Madeline likes to watch game shows on cable. She is in her 90’s, Maria and I are taking her out to lunch one day this week.

I thin this photo captured the feel of the evening.

I am not quite whole without my blog, and never at peace if I can’t write something. It’s good to have the blog back on, I’m grateful there was no serious damage to our farm and thinking of all those people whose homes were battered and damaged by falling trees.

We have a lot of big old beautiful trees in our town, and the dark side of that is the havoc they cause when they fall on homes. The town was filled with state and county trucks and utility vehicles cleaning up the trees and getting them off the power lines.

I have a new list of Mansion residents for people to write too. You may notice some names are missing. This is the nature of life at the Mansion. This week, several people familiar to me, and perhaps you are gone. The staff is not permitted to tell me where they have gone or if they are coming back, and I know not to ask. I’ll figure it out over time or some of the other residents might tell me.

Some residents die. Some go the hospital, some to rehab, some to nurse homes, some leave for undisclosed reasons. I get attached but not too attached and learn to let go. There is alway someone new, someone needy. Someone up whom to commit small acts of great kindness.

One resident had her savings spent by a family member and has no money. One needs a stuffed animal to sleep with, another needs new bras after her breast surgery, another needs notecards so she can answer the letters you send her, another needs new shoes, hers are falling off of her feet.

Small acts of great kindness, no miracles.

Time is precious at the Mansion, it passes in a different way.

The names are Bob, Allan, Winnie, Jean, Art, Ben, John, Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Jackie, Silvie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Blanche, Bill,  Diane, Helen, Dottie, Ruth, Kenneth, Gerry, Guerda, Wayne, Matt.