23 June

Gus Tour: Connie Is Up And Moving

by Jon Katz
Connie Is Up And Moving

Connie was delighted to see Gus, but quickly asked for Red. “Where is he?” I thought it best to just have one dog today, since Gus was new, Connie is loyal to Red and I assured her he will be back shortly and regularly. Gus did well though, and so is Connie.

We have talked to her several times about the importance of getting up, as has the staff, for her back and breathing, and a therapist came and helped her to start taking short walks.  I promised to come and walk with her and Red so she is up and walking again, going even further than the therapist suggested, I think.

This was wonderful to see, it was so hard for her to stand.

Her new medication arrived, and is working, and I was much relieved to see her looking much brighter and more comfortable. She will be knitting again soon, I think. I can’t – there are not words –  tell you how much your cards and letters and photographs mean to her, she has a huge stack next to her chair and she showed us one from Belgium this morning, along with messages from every part of the country.

She loves reading them to Maria and me.

Connie could hardly believe the stack, about a foot high now. The staff says the letters are essential in her fighting back from a tough week and keeping her spirits and drive high. You are angels come to serve an Army Of Good, you have helped enormously.

Maria and I are taking her for a walk with Red tomorrow, if you can keep the cards and letters coming that would be great.  Your Fourth of July gifts and messages are beginning to arrive, that is also wonderful. You have  transformed the whole meaning of holidays for these people.

There is much conflict and mean-spiritedness in the air, you have cut through that with your big hearts and empathy. There is nothing harder for these people than to feel forgotten and left behind, and you have transformed that for them.

I have a new and updated listed of Mansion residents who would love to receive your letters, all at this address: The Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

Bruce, Allan, Sylvie, Jean, John Z., Tim, John, Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Connie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Barbara, William, Brother Peter, Diane, Helen, Jane, Dottie, Anita, Richard, Gerry, Charlotte, Arthur, Shirley, Robert.

I am certain Gus will work well as a therapy dog, an exciting day for him, for us. For you all, thank you and bless you for showing so many people how much good there is in human beings, when they are given the chance. You are our better angels.

22 June

July 4th: Love The Country, Love The Mansion Residents

by Jon Katz
Love The Mansion: Madeline and Red

I wanted to remind the many friends of the Mansion out there that July 4th is approaching. I can’t tell you how much the residents of the Mansion appreciate your letters and cards and photographs. Any photos or messages about the Fourth of July would be appreciated, as there will be a fireworks celebration and part there, they will be using the new picnic  table and chairs you bought for them.

Your messages, gifts and packages have transformed the holidays for the Mansion residents. For many of them, holidays can be bittersweet, they think of different times and miss their fuller lives.

“When I get these letters,” Madeline told me yesterday, “I feel as if I have a family again. I don’t only have memories, I have real people writing to me and thinking of me.” Yesterday, Jane was writing a long letter to Joleen, who lives far away, Sylvie was writing back a new friend in Texas, Peggie showed me photos people’s dogs she has received in the mail, Connie was reading us from a wondrous stack of letters.

This exchange has changed and brightened lives, it is a wonderful thing you are doing.

If you wish to mark the Fourth of July in some way, it would be an apt and fitting time not only to love our country but these good and loving people who live on the edge of life. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the American spirit.

You can write to the Mansion residents at 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Here is a partial list of the Mansion residents, the ones who wish to receive your messages. They will all benefit from any other gifts or ideas that can be distributed. And thanks.

The names are Bruce, Allan, Sylvie, John Z, Tim, John R., Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Connie, Alice, Madeline, Mary (a great cat lover), Barbara, William, Brother Peter, Diane, Helen, Jane, Dottie, Anita, Richard, Gerry, Charlotte, Arthur, and George.

Gratitude for the Army Of Good, spreading  your magic.

21 June

Connie’s Letters: “They Make Me Happy”

by Jon Katz
“The Letters Make Me Happy”

When I came into the Mansion today, everyone I saw was reading your letters. The Army Of Good is especially literate. Connie had a pile of letters six inches tall, and she was carefully opening each one to read us the parts she remembered and loved. “They mean a lot to me,” she said.

Connie is working to come out of a tough patch. She is suffering from severe back pain, including a number of torn muscles. She also has osteoporosis and spinal stenosis. Because she can  hardly move, she can barely walk. Because she can barely walk, she is short of breath.

In the Mansion, the residents are often entangled in the painful and continuous circles of life and health. One thing leads to another, and a never-ending procession to doctor’s offices and hospitals. Connie’s doctor has prescribed some ibuprofen for her back, and the medicine he ordered was supposed to come at night.

In case it didn’t Maria and I went out and bought some at the pharmacy, the residents cannot receive any kind of medication without a doctor’s approval or order.

Connie is still without her cellphone, she is expecting service to be restored soon. Her back makes knitting impossible, and Maria and I have undertaken to get her to walk more often, with us and Red. Connie loves Red and will do anything for him, if it is at all possible, she will walk with him.

Connie is mostly confined to her chair until her back heals – a physical therapist is coming in the morning – she sometimes plays games on her Kindle but carefully pores through the stack of letters piled up next to her chair and reads and re-reads each one. They are very important to her now. The only thing she admits to needing besides “a new back,” was some paper tissues, she has enough now for a month or so.

Maria and I are going to double-team her over the next few days to get her walking around, it is essential to her health. I also respect that she is a person of independent will, and it is up to her whether or not to do it.

If you wish to write Connie, she would love it, you can send your letter or photograph to Connie, c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. If you wish to write the other residents here is a list of the first names of residents who wish to receive your letters:  Bruce, Allan, Sylvie, Jean, John Z, John R, Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Connie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Barbara, William, Brother Peter, Diane, Helen, Jane, Dottie, Anita, Richard, Gerry, Charlotte, Arthur,  George.

16 June

Stories Of The Mansion: Sylvie’s Tale

by Jon Katz
Sylvie’s Tale

On Friday mornings through June, I go to the Mansion and work with Julie Smith, the Mansion Activities Director, on the stories of the residents. I work with each writer, offering suggestions and critiques.

The residents will read from their stories on June 30, and a friend Abrah Griggs, a book designer and artist from Vermont, will help assemble the book, which will hopefully be published and sold in paper and as an e-book. A blog reader has ordered cookies for the event from the Round House Cafe and paid for them. Thanks.

About a half-dozen stories have been completed. I brought several home with me today to read and edit.

Sylvie gave me a quite beautiful and remarkable story today when I went to the Mansion with Red.

She was the daughter of an America diplomat who traveled across South America and Europe before, during and after World War II. She remembers the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the devastation of the Nazi Empire after the war.

We headed for England where we stayed for four years,” she wrote. “I fell in love there but marriage was not to be. Daddy retired and we headed back to Vienna, Austria. My mother and daddy had loved Vienna, as I had, but my love there did not last. I became mentally, ill, something that lasted many years.

My life was shattered at my having to leave Peter, my first love.

But my traveling was not over. I traveled first to a sanitarium for a cure. I hated it there, but I loved their geometry lessons, I was good at it. I played a miniature harp in my bedroom; I was good at that too. It was called a lyre. The sanitarium was supposed to be in the Black Forest, but I only saw one tree there while taking a walk. Then I traveled to a home for handicapped children to help however, when my Uncle Ralph came there to visit me it was pronounced by the authorities to be mentally ill.”

Sylvie was to deal with her mental illness for the rest of her life, searching for love.

After the war, her life was bounded by the institutions she lived in.

She was hospitalized in Massachusetts for 15 years, and her boy friend Dan died of complications from diabetes. She doesn’t write much about it, but she was rescued from an awful fire and came to the Mansion. I don’t know if she wishes to say more. She suffered three strokes in 2016. Her intelligence and humor always shine through.

Sylvie and I have developed a close friendship, we are always happy to see one another, she always greets me somewhat formally but affectionately. I think she is one of the few Mansion residents that is happier to see me than Red.  We just see to get one another.

Her life has some wonderful stories – it is in itself a wonderful story –  and her perspective is much shaped by her extensive travels around the world during one of the most tumultuous periods in history.

Her story is important for many reasons, and I am excited to help her tell it to the world. We don’t need any funds to prepare or host the stories. I’m not sure what it will cost to publish the book, if I need help, I’ll ask for it.

Next week, I’ll get the final version of Sylvie’s story – it is nearly done – and it will be exciting to have it read at the Mansion. Her story needs to live.  I volunteered to read it for her, and I think she will be happy for me to do it. We’ll talk about it further.

You can write Sylvie at the Mansion, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, Mass., 12816. Lo Ann Sanders, a long-time reader of the blog, came to the Mansion yesterday to visit Sylvie and some of the other residents. She came bearing gifts.

Here is an updated list of the Mansion residents who wish to receive your messages:  Bruce, Allan, Sylvie, Jean, John Z,  Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Connie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Barbara, William, Brother Peter, Diane, Helen, Jane, Dottie, Anita, Gerry, Arthur. Thanks.

10 June

The Mansion Visitors: Friends Are The Flower In Life’s Garden. Honoring Good.

by Jon Katz
Friends Are The Flowers In Life’s Garden

Five residents from the Mansion were able to make it to the Spring Open House today, I’m afraid I couldn’t get a photograph of all of them together, but I was very moved by this gift they gave me, signed by many of the residents Red and I visit and that you help every day.

Today, we honored our better angels and celebrated the Army Of Good.

A lot of work and thinking went into it, and we hung it on the barn wall for tomorrow’s Sunday Open House. It was addressed to me, Maria and Red. I love it and will hang it in my office, it was one of the loveliest gifts I have ever received. The residents were here for about three hours and I think they had a good time.

I saw them laughing and talking every time I looked. They watched Red work with the sheep.

They had never seen Red herd the sheep before, the listened to the music and the talks and chatted with many of the visitors, some of whom recognized them from the blog. I hope they  will be our honored guests at every Open House we host. A deep and enduring new tradition.

This Friday, I will get to work on the stories they are writing for our writing project. Perhaps in October, they can read from it. That is something to look ahead to.

They love receiving your letters, and July 4th is approaching (hint). Some of the names of the Mansion residents who like getting letters: Bruce, Allan, Sylvie, Jean, John Z, Tim, Ben, John R., Alanna, Reggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Connie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Barbara, William, Brother Peter, Diane, Helen, Jane, Dottie, Anita, Richard, Gerry, Charlotte, Arthur, George.

You can write the residents c/o The Mansion, 11 S.Union Street, Cambridge N.Y., 12816.

Bedlam Farm