Peggie always seems to know when Red is in the Mansion, we hear her voice down the hallway, “Red,” and he runs over to her. Peggy has excellent tattoos and keeps her hair dyed red and her fingernails a deep blue. We hung a photo on one of her walls the other day, and I saw that her room was filled with jigsaw puzzles, from 250 to 1,000 pieces.
Just as Madeline is a whiz at crossword puzzles, Peggie has a gift for jigsaw puzzles. You can write Peggie if you wish c/o Peggie, The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
Connie’s ll-year-old Apple computer broke down and can’t be fixed, and i wrote about this and suggested that people not try to fix this problem, it would be too expensive and complicated. Of course, Kristen ignored me and shipped Connie a new Kindle Fire pad, which plays the games she loves to help her sleep at night.
It does a bunch of other things as well. When Connie saw it, she cried, she can hardly believe people care about her this much. She said she didn’t want any help with this, but I can see how grateful she is.
The Kindle Fire is perfect for her, easy to use, lightweight, portable, and easy to see. “Hi, Connie,’ wrote Kristen, “I hope you can use this to play games, please enjoy it, it would make me very happy to give you back that ability and the fun you had playing them! I hope someone can help you set it up.”
It is set up, Kristen, and it does make her happy, she is playing games on it already. Made me happy to see it, also, thanks for your generosity and for not listening to me.
-The Mansion is organizing an April Art Show. The residents will be visited by local artists during the month of April – Maria is going to show them how to make drawings from her free-form sewing techniques, Rachel Barlow and other regional artists are also coming by to teach drawing and painting and watercolor and talk about their work.
Maria and I and a yet to be named artist will judge the art work and pick some winners, their art will be shown at the Mansion.
Some of you have already sent some art supplies, thanks.
I have a list of the additional things some of the residents will need for the show – Canvas Board, 11 x 14, watercolor paper, card stock (heavy paper), acrylic paints and stamp pads are needed. I can get the canvas board, the other items are inexpensive and easily available, and if you can help the address is “The Mansion Art Show, c/o Julie Smith, 11 S. Union Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.” Thanks.
They are excited.
-The barewall art project is moving along. We’ve identified about eight rooms with bare walls, we’ve put art and photographs up on four of them already. I’ll put up a couple of photos. Today we put up art work in Peggie’s room and Joan’s room.
-Herman’s family is grateful for your love and support. He died on Saturday. I am giving the beautiful tin goat sculpture that was sent anonymously to me to give to Herman to Mandi Mulready of the Mansion staff. She was so good to Herman in his last days, it turns out her grandparents had goats and she grew up with them. Herman raised goats and loved them.
-Today, they received the Deluxe Scrabble game they hoped to have in the Activity Room.
-I discovered today that Madeline, a Mansion resident who was raised in a Bronx orphanage, who traveled the world as a military wife and who is 94 years old, loves crossword puzzles. I saw a pile of them in her room, and she says she loves doing them, she often works on the New York Times Puzzle.. I got hold of several to give her (one has large type), she says she can handle all but the toughest ones. Something to keep in mind, you can write her c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
-The van you so generously helped to purchase is due to arrive at the Mansion tomorrow afternoon, I hope to go over and take a photo to show what you did, and thank you. I am thinking ahead to Easter, it is not far a way and an important day in the lives of the Mansion residents, a day that speaks of family and faith.
Please feel no pressure to do this work or sent letters and gifts, many of you have asked to be notified about what people need, but I am mindful of your limits,you have done so much, and there are not many wealthy people reading the blog I don’t think. But there are a lot of angels.
And it is difficult to even describe the importance of the work you are doing.
The Mansion Walls: gofundme campaign, now at $8,725.
Today, we hung a beautiful landscape by the local artist Marilyn Brooks in Connie’s room, the walls are white and bare. She looks at them much of the day.
So I have this idea for a new project for the Mansion walls. I have to speak to the staff and administrators there and get permission and guidance. Some things are permitted, some not. When the residents come to a facility like the Mansion, they have to leave almost all of their non-essential personal belongs behind – dogs, cats, paintings, most furniture and lamps, etc.
There is the sense of giving up many of the things they loved about life, and they don’t have to lose all of those things. Connie is bound to her chair for much of the day, and it is helpful for her to look up and see something bright and colorful. Something of life.
Life is sometimes uncertain in institutions, and most resident leave some of the things they love with their families or friends. They have very little space and have to make some hard choices.
I’d like to fill up some of those walls with photographs, sketchings, light paintings. The walls are brick, so we have to hang with on non-nail backings like hooks with adhesives. I can take care of that. We all need to see uplifting images in our homes and lives.
Many of the residents are animal lovers (but not all), and most like bright and colorful images on their walls. I might seek some assistance for you soldiers of good for this idea, I can do some of it myself, I’m thinking of photographs, some landscapes and brightly colored drawings. Some could come from students in painting or art classes, too.
First, I have to talk to the administrators and then to some of the residents. They approved the painting for Connie, and we hung it with the right adhesives. If you are inclined to help, please don’t send anything at the moment, I want to make sure everyone there is consulted – including the residents – and that I have a feeling for what the residents might like.
I know they would like some of the photographs I’ve seen that you sent on the bulletin boards. We can even move some of the images around from time to time and share them.
I don’t want anyone spending a lot of money on this, it ought to be simple and bright and cheerful. We have a long haul of good work ahead of us. Nothing heavy, elaborate or costly, you are spending your good money thoughtfully and for good causes, and I don’t wish to see anyone stretching themselves too far.
Boundaries are important, or we will burn out.
If there are simple, light and inexpensive frames, they might work, but we can also mount photographs and posters if they have cardboard or other hard backings. I mention this just so those who wish to can think on it, and I’ll keep you posted. I’m hoping the residents can get to choose the art they want to some degree, and I’ll get some input on that. Might be a great Spring or Easter project. I’ll keep you posted, and thanks.
If you wish to write to the residents (up to 10 new residents will be arriving in the coming weeks), here is a list of residents who wish to receive letters and cards from the outside world. It is not complete: Bruce, Alllan, Herman, Ellen, Sylvie, Jean. G., John Z., Carl (Bob), John R., Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Christie, Connie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Barbara, Bill H., Brother Peter, Helen, Diane, Jean. A. Gerry.
Van Update: As of 4 p.m. Sunday, the Mansion’s van gofundme campaign has raised $8,725, which means we have $1,025 to go. The Mansion needs $10,000 buy a van especially equipped for the elderly, George Scala, the Mansion owner, is putting up the other $10,000.
The need is urgent, and thanks for your generosity and compassion.
Robin loves the bunny I gave her some months ago, and watching her grow, I think of how important it is for me to offer a helping hand to the refugee children, some no older than Robin, coming to America while they still can.
This week, a new chapter for me, and also for Maria. We are getting closer to offering additional support to these families, many of whom have come to this area. Today and Sunday we are going to Albany to meet with volunteer officials and learn just what kind of help we can offer.
In recent months, the volunteer programs have become more guarded and restrictive. And protective.
There are also lots more volunteers. People care about them and welcome them.
Some of the refugees are planning an art show in Albany later this month, that might be a good way for Maria and I to plunge in and help. There are also mentoring, support and literacy programs, that’s another possibility.
I want to meet and photograph some of the refugees and show them to be loving and hard-working human beings and family members, not monsters or deadbeats or terrorists. They are working, they are contributing, they are not sucking our resources up.
Showing this is the tricky part, as people are afraid to be photographed or talk openly, something I have rarely seen before in America but is dangerous in their home countries. Pictures can be powerful.
I think the best contribution to the refugees lives that I can make is to show them as human beings, as has happened at the Mansion Assisted Care Facility. These are not nameless and faceless elderly people, they are Connie and Peggie and Madeline and Jean and Sylvie and Brother Pet.
That makes all the difference. Maria will figure out what she can do, how she will help. One thing all of us can do often and very inexpensively is visit the Amazon Refugee Gift Page , set up by the U.S. Committee On Refugees And Immigration.
The refugee children are frightened and overwhelmed.
I bought several and donated them, all you have to do is click on the USCRI Refugee Warehouse as a destination. I think about Robin, my first granddaughter, and who might care about her if she found herself in a strange country and her parents had lost everything.
I hope people would reach out to her and send blankets and socks and toys.
Compassion is my faith and political ideology, that is my platform. I don’t care about the left and the right and their shrinking minds and visions. We are not free if we only have two choices to make about how we think, I think we all learned that last year.
I’ll share my experience in engagement with the refugees. I hope you’ll take a look at the gift page. These people lost everything and need everything. They are no threat to you, me, or our country.
Connie wanted me to show you a sweater she just crocheted for a child, it’s going to the Albany Medical Center to keep a baby warm. Thanks to you – the needles, patterns, yarn and encouragement – she is churning out beautiful things every day. She has made mittens for the entire staff and many of the residents and is working on sweaters, blankets and caps for newborns.
Maria was bowled over by the quality of the work Connie is doing, and her room is crammed with buckets and baskets of yarn. She wants to use it all, and I believe she will. Connie’s evolution has been just wonderful to see, and your generosity is so much a part of it. She is busy morning to night, and her work is beautiful and coming in a steady stream.
It is hard for her to leave her chair and oxygen, so this work has given her a great focus and activity, she has found so much meaning and purpose in it, she is so animated and excited. Hard to capture what you all have done. You can write Connie and the other residents of the Mansion at: c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. I’m thinking Easter also.
The other residents who wish to receive your messages are Bruce, Allan, Sylvie, Jean G., John Z., Cari (Bob), John R., Alanna, Peggie, Ellen, Joan, Brenda, Christie, Connie, Alice, Madeline, Mary, Barbara, Bill H., Brother Peter, Diane, Helen, Jean.A., Gerry.
New arrivals coming soon. Please check out the gofundme page set up to help the Mansion get a desperately needed van to transport the residents.
