A Favor For Dorothy?

A few of my long-term readers may recall some stories I did concerning Dorothy, a self-professed "crazy cat lady". Aside from being any cat's best friend, she is also my cousin (second cousin, twice removed, as I recall, though neither one of us is quite sure what we were removed from and why.)

(She made that joke the first time I met her, when I was a kid. I always loved it.)

If you never saw the stories, or would like to see them again, here are some links (as opposed to lynx, which would be another type of cat altogether.)

Dorothy

Dorothy & The Cats - An Update

Another Visit With Dorothy

No sense putting off the bad news.

Dorothy is on her last legs.

I can say that here, without fear of her reading it and flipping out, for two reasons. First, she uses a computer about as often as I use an abacus, which is to say never. Second, she knows her situation.

She's had various forms of cancer, of various things, for quite a while now, years. I mentioned that in the first story about her, written some three years ago, and it hasn't cleared up since then. So, now she is even thinner than she was then, and she is in an actual hospital bed. She has expressed the thought that she will not leave that bed. As I understand it, it was said without acrimony, without a flood of tears. It was a statement of fact, from a lady of intelligence.

(Yes, I said "As I understand it". I haven't been able to visit her. I've been hideously ill with a flu of some sort. Still am, at least to the extent that my visiting a hospital would result in me being responsible for offing scads of patients by the mere act of my coughing on them. So, all I know about Dorothy at the moment is via hearsay from My Uncle Jimmy, who has been to visit.)

Anyway, getting to the point here - and about time - Uncle Jimmy says Dorothy's face lit up when he and John, his partner, showed up. They were the first visitors she had had in the week or so she had been there.

(I'll get there as soon as this flu clears totally, but that may not be for several more days given the way I feel.)

She has now been there two weeks or more, and all she's likely gotten in that time is a card I sent her. Not much, by any means, and especially for such a nice woman.

So, I'm here to ask you to please send something to Dorothy. Anything. A little card, a note, just some things to let her know that she's still alive.

You don't have to act like you know her (unless you feel you do, from the stories) and you don't have to say that you're sure she'll be up and running around soon (because she knows that bullshit.) Just the act of getting the mail (or whatever) will be something nice to help her through. A Bible verse wouldn't be out of place, as she has been a daily communicant in the Catholic church. Cats are near to her heart, of course.

Anyway, if you feel like it, it would be a nice thing.

Here's the place to send stuff:

Dorothy Luffe, Room 103
c/o Milford Care & Rehabilitation
10 Veterans Memorial Drive
Milford, MA 01757-2900

If you do, Thanks! Time is of the essence, as you might imagine.

I owe you one.

Soon.