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.