Many of you know Mary from her readings at our Open Houses, and for her three wonderful books of poetry. She fell down in her home a week ago and broke her hip and is doing well in rehab, but will be there for a couple of weeks. I know she would love to get letters, there are hours to fill and she loves to hear from people.

Even in brutish weather, Mary would always go out twice a day to whistle at the deer and give them some sweet feed. It was after one of these encounters in frigid weather that her boots got slick and she fell down in the kitchen.

Her address is the Washington Center For Rehabilitation, 4573 NY-40, Argyle, N.Y., 12809, if you wish to write her.

Mary is 88 and l iives along on her 30 acre farm. Her family lives just down the hill, but she is ferociously independent and committed to living her life. We don’t try to nag her into being someone else, she will govern her own life to the very end.

I am honored to be the first human being Mary trusted to read her poetry. She returned the favor by urging me to marry Maria when so many fled after my divorce and vanished from my life. She told me “great, she will keep you in line.” This was true.