Once a week or so, Maria comes with me and Red to the Mansion, she helps hang pictures and talks to the residents. Connie gets a lot of mail, she saves some to read to us when we come. Some she wants to share with us, some she needs some help understanding or interpreting.
This has become a sweet and touching ritual for us. Connie continues to receive bags and sacs of yarn – I call her room “Yarn World,” it is filling up with yarn. She is cranking out caps for newborn babies, and sweaters, scarves and mittens, all of which she gives away.
She says she does not need any more yarn, and I believe her. Red and I sometimes have trouble squeezing into the room.
She loves getting and reading the letters. As we leave, she and Maria hug, and I have never hugged Connie. Today, as I left, she said, “what about a hug from you?” Connie, like me, does not show much emotion, but I was very happy to hug her and be hugged in return.
The reading of the letters is an important ritual for Connie, and for us. She is proud of these letters, she keeps them on a stack by her chair day and night. She always have several picked out and ready for us to read. These messages mean so much to her. She still doesn’t believe people want to send them to her.
In early April, Connie is being driven to our farm by a Mansion aide, who will help with her oxygen tanks, tubes, walker and medicine. She was anxious about coming to visit us, she thought it would be too difficult to haul all of her medical equipment around. Thanks to the new van and Activity Director Julie Smith, we can do it.
Watching Connie struggle to figure out how to come to our farm, I was reminded once more of the complexity of being older. Connie can’t, of course, just get up and walk anywhere, she needs breathing tubes, and a fairly large oxygen tent nearby. She also has complex spinal issues.
We needed to understand that she will need help and patience to make the trip and feel comfortable and safe. And she hates to be a bother. But we’ll get her there. Connie says she has enough yarn, and thanks, but you can writer her and the other Mansion resident at The Mansion, 11 S. Union Avenue, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.
I had to nudge her a bit, and finally, just make a date with the staff. She said she would love to go. Maybe she can see Red work.
The trip is on the calendar for April 5th, Maria is anxious for Connie to see Maria’s studio, and perhaps work with her. It promises to be fun, for all of us, she and Maria have a strong connection with her. So do Red and I.