Nine seniors in Mary Lynn Ellis’ advisory made a special delivery on Wednesday, giving residents and staff of the Hopkins Center long-term care facility in Wyncote three colorful windows designed to lift their spirits and ease their stress. One of the windows had been created from multiple pieces painted last March by students in Mary Lynn’s class, “Translations: The Call and Response Between Literature and Art.”

Shoshi Greenberg ’16, had invited her mom, D’vorah Horn-Greenberg P’06, ’09, ’16, to engage the students in painting the small acrylic shapes while intentionally thinking healing thoughts. D’vorah later assembled those pieces, as well as those painted by Hopkins Center residents, into the trio of brightly colored windows.

On Wednesday, the dozen or so residents gathered in a multipurpose room greeted the gift of one of the windows with applause. A woman who had lost her eyesight, Christine Jackson, joyfully asked a fellow resident seated next to her to describe the colors and the design. That resident, Gary Jones, described an ocean-like scene of swirling greens and blues, and later said about the window, “It’s beautiful. It’s calming.”

A second window was installed in a physical therapy room, and the third window, the one created of pieces by the AFS students last spring, received pride of place in the main dining room. Afterward, the students ate lunch and chatted with the residents.

“I wish we could do more,” said one of the students, Mason Weinstock. “I hope the art does help.”

Another student, Griffen Lloyd, said he noticed a change in the residents’ demeanor when the AFS visitors arrived.

“It was really nice to see how our presence affected everyone. I saw a lift in their spirits. That, combined with giving them something, felt so good,” he said.

Mary Lynn said the current students will be making a window sometime this year, and that, too, will be given away. As for D’vorah, her Mending Spirit project will continue to look for new places to take art as a way to promote healing.