18 April

Christy: “Tell My Friends Not To Forget Me”. Little Red.

by Jon Katz
Christy: Hard Times

Christy and I lost touch for a bit, she lost her laptop and ended up back in the hospital, then was returned to the Indian River Rehabilitation Center in Granville, N.Y. I couldn’t figure out where she was. We got back in touch a couple of day sago.

When I got into hospice and therapy work, a hospice social worker sat me down and said, “look, if you want to do this work, you will see a lot of life and a lot of reality, and if you can’t handle it, don’t get into it.”

This was wise and true advice, and for nearly a decade I have handled it and will continue to handle it, it is a calling for me, a selfish think, I think, more than a noble thing, I am coming to terms with the nature of life, and of death. But I am careful about it.

Recently, I have invited many of you to participate with me in this work, by sending letters and messages to Christy and others.

So I suppose you have to be able to handle it also, and I will caution you to be merciful with yourselves and gentle. The news is not always good.

Christy has had a lot of bad news since I saw her last. She was taken back to the hospital for several problems I am not free to detail, and has recently been returned to Indian River Rehab. She got a new laptop, and can now receive my messages, and I now know where she is. I will visit her as soon as I am told it is possible.

She told me she was afraid she could never get back to the Mansion or see her friends again. I asked her why and she told me the health issues that have been piling up for her. I am not free to share them, but Christy has had a rough time and faces some hard realities.

“I want to get back to the Mansion,” she wrote me this morning, “but I need to get where I can take care of myself. I am kinda scared that I won’t get back. I did not have good news about my health… So, I just have to take one day at a time. Give Red a hug for me.”

I am neither a doctor or a seer, but the odds are getting longer for Christy’s return to the Mansion, which has kept her room open. That is between her, them and her doctors, I have nothing to say about that and nothing to do with it.

This work teaches boundaries, and it also reminds me not to ever play God or believe that I can alter the trajectory of life or fate. Christy is fighting hard to recover, but she told me she can no longer walk and is dealing with some new issues that she feared might arise. The ones she had were serious enough.

The Mansion is a place where people are quite familiar with life, and everyone asks me about Christy, but they don’t ever say she will or won’t return. They know better than to predict things. Me too. And the residents need to protect themselves, life at the edge of life is especially challenging.

I will go and see Christy with Red when it is possible, and hope to learn about the even more difficult challenges i know she is facing now. There is not much more than that for me to do.j I will do my best to make sure she is not forgotten.

By the way, Christy told me today that someone sent her a stuffed red dog, and she named him “Little Red.” Thanks.

If you wish to write her, the address is Christy L., c/o Indian River Rehabilitation, 17 Madison Street, Granville, N.Y., 12832.  And thanks for the many letters and messages that have lifted her up.

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