Dear Readers and Friends:

After my oncologist visit the other day, my mom offered the following story:

Mom: You remember my friend the doctor’s wife?

Me: Yes

Mom: Well she had breast cancer and it kept coming back even after she did everything they told her to. And now it’s back again and she’s very depressed because she has to go through more treatment and lose her hair. But the good news is there’s some anti-depressant using magnets that they attach to her head and now she feels great and ready for the drip.

Me: Thanks mom. That’s very encouraging.

I’m not depressed nor do I have breast cancer, but I do realize that mom’s story is her way of offering encouragement and giving me a long distance hug. She’s ninety and I love her. 

Good wishes come in different forms and some of the best warmth I’ve received has come from you, my dear readers and friends. Those who have taken the time to write a kind and supportive note and send it in care of the Democrat. It always heartens me to think someone out there might actually be reading my column. Here are some portions of hope from readers and friends:

Sending hugs, prayers and positive thoughts…Martha

I very much enjoy your column…Knltin

Love and miracles…Kazzrie & Michael

You have done it before and you will do it again…Gary

Best of luck in reaching your goal. If anyone can do it, you can…Sr. Mon

Please know your community is cheering you on…Ride to Survive

We wish you all the best and will keep you in our prayers…Lynne

Perhaps the most notable letter came from Martin. In it he says…

I’m writing to wish you luck and encourage you to hang in there. I had serious cancer twice several years ago and now I’m a hundred [years-old]. Born 11/13/1922. I’m not dancing in the streets but I still have a few beers at the end of the day. 

And then he goes on to say…

You probably wonder where Smallwood is. It’s not the Paris of the Catskills, Callicoon is since you moved there, but it has a post office. I walk there every day. 

To Martin I say…

Your note inspires me to make more of an effort to walk around Callicoon, the Paris of the Catskills. There I will surely pass the Eiffel Tower in the form of The Callicoon Brewery. I’ll also view the Arc de Tromphe a/k/a the Callicoon Movie Theater, the River Seine a la the Delaware River, the Louvre Museum masquerading as the I.O.U Thrift Store and, last but not least, the Cathedral of Notre Dame embodied in the Grace, United Methodist and Saint James churches. I’ll also try to regularly walk to the Post Office.

p.s. Dearest Marin: I’ve been to Smallwood when I was in a movie called ‘The Kook’, a PeKing Inc, production. In the film, I played a truck driver though I was originally cast as an Irish bar maid and then demoted to convenience store clerk. 

I ended up a truck driver when the directors, Nat Livingston and Greg Mitnick, spied an eighteen-wheeler in the parking lot of the convenience store. They didn’t even ask if I had a driver’s license. Instead, they just turned to me and said, we want you to drive that truck. I guess they figured I was a really good actress, NOT.

You can find the trailer at https://peking.film. Am I the kook? People ask all the time. You decide.

RAMONA JAN is the Founder and Director of Yarnslingers, a storytelling group that tells tales both fantastic and true. She is also the roving historian for Callicoon, NY and is often seen giving tours around town. You can email her at callicoonwalkingtours@gmail.com.