Yesterday, Maria and I and Red went to visit our friend Mary Kellogg, the poet and a central figure in our lives together. She had fallen in the kitchen of her farm a week ago and broken her hip, and after surgery she was taken to the Washington County Rehabilitation Center  in Argyle,  N.Y.

Mary had gone out to feed the deer in the snow, as she does twice a day on her remote farm near Granville, N.Y. and fell on her wet books when she came into the kitchen. She lay on the floor and managed to crawl to the phone to call her daughter Nancy, who lives nearby.

She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance and surgeons repaired her hip. She is in rehab, up and walking. Mary came to me when she was in her early 80’s – she is 88 now – and showed me some poems she had written.

They were wonderful and Maria and I edited and published her first book of poetry, My Place On Earth, which is in its 3rd printing and sold nearly 2,000 copies. She followed that book with Whistling Woman, and then How To Dance.

The break was serious, but Mary is already up and walking, several times a day. She looks great. She is a poet of rural and family life, and of the animals that still live in the woods and forests. She is an advocate of the independent life, free of fear and convention.

She is a monument to living a life of meaning and aging with grace.

We are working with her on a fourth volume of poems, yet to be named. She promised today to turn over the rest of her overdue poems when she gets home from rehab, which should be in about two weeks.

Mary, who is indomitable and fiercely independent, lives on a 30-acre farm on the top of a lonely hill. I was the first person to ever see one of her poems, she started writing poetry when she was 11 but felt even her beloved husband Richard would think poorly of her if he saw her work.

She writes beautifully of life on the farm, then and now. Many people have urged Mary to leave her farm and live somewhere safer and with more help. I think it will never happen. Mary is bound to her farm, and her life, and she rejects other people’s ideas of safety and caution, just as Maria and I do. She is an inspiration to us, not only for how to age, but how to live and feel.

We were so glad to see her today, and we brought Red, who did his therapy dog thing and ended up in the arms of many staffers. Mary is doing well. Members of her family were urging her not to go outside in the snow and feed the birds and deer. That will not happen either.

When Mary goes outside, she whistles, and the deer come close and eat the sweet feed she tosses on the ground for them. This winter they must have appreciated her greatly, she identifies them by sight, and they come out of the deep woods when they hear her whistle.

Mary also feeds the ridiculously strutting wild turkeys, she laughs at them and is writing a poem about their antics. Mary can no longer tend her beautiful gardens by herself, but her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren often come up to help her.

She loves living alone on her farm, she weathers storms, power outages, and a phone that has worked only sporadically for years.

Mary’s two much-loved cats died recently, and she is reluctant to get another one. We asked  her if she wanted fish, we have an extra tank, she said she would love one, so we are going to bring her one with some fish. We both think she will love to sit and look at them. When a family member suggested she stop going outside to feed the deer, she winked at me.

We feel especially close to Mary, she comes to each of our Open Houses to read from her books of poetry (you can buy them through Battenkill Books, 518 677-2515). She will be reading at our October Open House this year. She will start feeding her deer about the same time.

Mary has great character and courage, we love her very much and will be bringing her books and cookies and Red. And us.

Mary enjoys getting letters, many of you have  read her works. If you would like to write her, the address is Mary Kellogg, The Washington County Center For  Rehabilitation, 4573 Route 40, Argyle, N.Y., 12809. She loves photographs of animals and will be at the rehabilitation for about two more weeks.

I’m putting up some portraits of Mary on Facebook in an album.