i’ve lived with donkeys for 15 years now, and I love and appreciate them more and more with each day. They are remarkable creatures, intelligent, sensitive and very loving if they love you, and very standoffish if they don’t.
Lulu and Fanny are sisters, they have been together all of their lives, and they are inseparable. I think Maria is really their third sister, we both have strong bonds to them, but Maria’s connection is strong, somewhere between spiritual and mystical.
With donkeys, every decision has to be theirs and there is no civil way to persuade then to do anything they are not in the mood to go.
They are intensely aware of humans, their hearing is astonishing. They hear our conversations in the farmhouse, they even know when we talk in bed, and they bray and scream to get out attention when they are hungry, or need some attention.
Donkeys love to be brushed and talked to, but only when they are in the mood. Every day, they demand that we brush them, talk to them, sit with them. Then, when they are done, they don’t really need to see us again that day.
They can be the sweetest creatures on earth, or the most stubborn. Just like me, Maria says. Just like her. We came out into the far pasture to check on the farm, the wind was just shrieking, but nobody seemed to mind. The Spring sun is getting stronger, and we just aren’t paying attention to wintry weather any longer, although todays’s wind and cold did drive us inside after 15 or 20 minutes.
Still, Lulu insisted on being loved a bit, and Maria sat down with her and they talked.
Red does not notice the wind any more than the sheep do, I appreciate the way he diligently keeps an eye on the flock, even from a distance, he doesn’t need to get close to monitor them and control their movements. Red is almost totally blind in his right eye now, he can still see out of his left. Sometimes it confuses him, I think. But nothing keeps him from working with the sheep and keeping them where they are supposed to be, certainly not a windstorm.
We were hit by a fierce and beautiful windstorm this afternoon, the wind followed the back end of a storm system, we cancelled the visit to Pompanuck Farm by the RISSE soccer team (they are coming to make lunch for the Mansion residents on Friday) and Maria and I took a walk out into the back pasture, the sky was opening up and was especially beautiful, but it was also cold as the wind got stronger and stronger.
It is raging outside now, the wind alert is on until 5 a.m. Thursday, I’ll be turning off the computer shortly. I thought this portrait of Maria in her Red Riding Hood caught the feeling, it was gorgeous and fearsome out there. I”m putting up a photo album on Facebook.
This is the story of a woman in India, of Jean at the Mansion, and a pair of Red Slippers from Bangalore.
About two months ago, I got an e-mail message from India. A reader of the blog was visiting Bangalore, I think she was either a British traveler or native-born Indian, she wouldn’t say. She loved my writing about the Mansion, and was following it closely. She came across a crafts man in Bangalore who made the most beautiful slippers, she said.
She asked if it was appropriate to order a pair and ship them to me.
Perhaps, she suggested, I could find someone at the Mansion who needed a pair.
I wrote back saying i wasn’t sure if anyone needed a pair of slippers like that, I said regulations required that slippers have bottoms, but I would try to find out.
I would make sure they got on some worthy feet somewhere – a Mansion resident or a refugee mother or daughter, I know a lot of people now who would love slippers like that, and who need slippers.
She never wrote back to suggest a size or tell me anything more, and over the weeks I just forgot about the slippers, and of course, I lost the e-mail. I get too many to keep track of sometimes. It was months ago, I just assumed that was the end of it.
This week, the slippers arrived with a short note thanking me for my work, and nothing more. The return address was a shop in India.
Today I took them over to the Mansion, and took them out of their box, and asked Hollyanne in the office if she knew anyone in residence who might want or need a size 6 – they were small – pair of slippers custom designed and made in India.
“Oh,” said Hollyanne without skipping a beat, “Jean wears a size six, she really needs a pair of slippers right now and she would love those.” Surprised, I asked if she knew all of the shoe sizes of the residents, I asked? Hollyanne laughed. Well, yes, she said. The Mansion is like that.
A few minutes later we were all in Jean’s room and she was in her new slippers and beaming. She just loved them, and she got up – slowly – and threw her arms around me and gave me a big kiss on the cheek. I blushed, i think, or so I was told. I really have trouble with compliments and thank yous.
Jean really did love them, she loved the colors and the feeling and the fit. At Friday’s Bingo game, Jean was just recovering from a fall and was a little fuzzy. She was very sharp today, the slippers really lifted her up. Perhaps, an aide suggested, they had magical powers and could help her fly.
Oh my, said Jean. She is usually found vacuuming the Mansion carpets every afternoon, even though they had just been vacuumed. She loves housework.
I call Jean my “girlfriend” and she calls me “Santa Claus.” We get a kick out of each other, and I very fondly remember dancing with her on the Steamboat ride around Lake George last summer. She is a deep dog lover and a great pal of Red’s. She has a dog bed and a stuffed dog inside to remind her of the dogs she left behind in her former life.
It breaks the heart to hear how much the Mansion residents miss their dogs and cats. They could use them.
Jean has had a rough month health wise, I can’t really talk about that, but I can report that she fell down and hurt her head the other day and had to go to the hospital by ambulance. She hates doing that, it was, she said, “such a fuss.”
She said she had never had a pair of slippers like that, and thanked me again and again.
The odd thing is that I don’t recall the name of that woman in India, I’m not sure I ever knew it. A lot of people offer to send things to the residents, sometimes they ship them directly, usually they ship them to me, especially if they are unusual or different, like the slippers. Sometimes I never hear from them again.
I doubt I ever will know this samaritan’s name, she didn’t seem me to want to know who she was, she doesn’t care for thanks or acknowledgements. I want to thank you, whoever you are, if you are out there. You brought great pleasure to Jean and her feet. She really needed to get those slippers this week, somehow you knew there was a need.
And thanks Hollyanne, they are lucky to have you there.
I love the story of the Red Slippers, it is so good to be reminded of how many wonderful human beings are out there, we are making our own news. If you wish, you can write Jean c/o The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
if you wish to support my Mansion work, you can send a contribution to The Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 or donate via Paypal, [email protected]. Thanks much.
An angel came to me at the Mansion and asked if it were possible for me to get a “realistic doll” for someone at the Mansion who was struggling and would love to have one. I know her well, she really does need a realistic doll. She needs one badly, I was told. I bought her this one, I know how important they can be. It cost $200, plus diapers.
Wayne lives in the Mansion Assisted Care Facility where I work as a volunteer. He came to the Mansion a few months ago, and is one of the sweetest, gentlest and most cheerful people I haver ever met, even though he has good reason to be unhappy at times.
Wayne came to my attention when I heard the staff talking about how much fun he is, he is always smiling, and has a ready and curious sense of humor. Wayne is always promising to have a sleep over with Red, and then come to the farm and let the animals into the farmhouse for a party. He’s coming to the farm in May, he’ll get his chance.
I was surprised to get a telephone call from a doctor in Saratoga who treated Wayne in a rehabilitation center there (I can’t say what for). He had come to the Mansion to see Wayne when he came there and he contacted me and said he had come to love Wayne – he bought him clothes, took him out, watched over him.
He asked me if I would also watch over Wayne, he offered a large donation to the Army Of Good. I declined the invitation, it wasn’t necessary for him to do that. I said I would keep an eye on Wayne, and I have done that. Wayne had virtually no clothes or possessions when he came to the Mansion, and the aides were worried about him.
I visited my network of thrift shops and Wal-Mart and we got Wayne everything he needed. Wayne is regular at the Friday night Bingo games Maria and I run, if he doesn’t get the number he wants, he smiles and winks and demands a new caller.
Wayne never asked for anything until last Friday, he was petting Red and looked away from me, and said, “I need some T-shirts. I only have three, and it’s getting to be summer.” It is hard for Wayne to ask for help, the first time he asked me directly. I rely on the staff to alert me to things he needs.
There is no one out there to support him.
. I had to ask Wayne a bunch of questions before I realized he wanted short-sleeve T-shirts for the hot weather.
I showed him the shirts on the Iphone – I know Wal-Mart also sells them – and he nodded. Today, I brought them over, and he was happy. They were – to my surprise – Happy Hour T-shirts, XL. Wayne was delighted with the sketch on the front and promised to start a happy hour ceremony at the Mansion. He looked devilish and I said I didn’t want to know about it.
Wayne always have the spark of mischief in his eyes.
This is what I mean by Small Acts Of Great Kindness, we can’t heal Wayne or alter the course of his life. We can give him comfortable shirts for the summer, it sometimes gets warm in the Mansion.
I appreciate your support for the Mansion work. You can help by contributing to the Gus Fund, c/o Jon Katz, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816, or via Paypal, [email protected].
Wayne is an avid reader, he loves to read letters and animal books and look at animal photos. You can write him c/o The Mansion, 11 S.Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
