Dorothy “Dolly” Blair gently touches the head of St. Francis — one of the statues she acquired to restore. Blair, a Secular Franciscan, embodies the spirit of St. Francis in other ways as well, including as a poet and owner of three adopted pets.South Lyon — Dorothy “Dolly” Blair’s own mother lived to 101 with “a remarkable constitution.”
Blair herself celebrated her 86th birthday on March 18, and continues to live an active, prayer-filled life. This includes raising adopted pets, writing religious poetry, restoring statues and being a member of the Secular Franciscan Order.
Blair has been a member for 35 years of the Secular Franciscans, formerly known as the Third Order of St. Francis, Catholic laypeople who feel the call to embrace Franciscan spirituality more deeply.
Blair, a member of St. Joseph Parish in South Lyon, meets with her fellow members of the St. Elizabeth Fraternity Secular Franciscan Order once a month at the Church of the Transfiguration Parish in Southfield.
Blair holds a copy of a poetry book she wrote, called “Heavenly Thoughts, Heavenly Advice, Heavenly Warnings.”Besides prayer and time for meditation, their meetings often involve collecting non-perishable food items for a local food pantry, echoing St. Francis’ urge to care for the poor.
“I really enjoy it,” Blair added.
Blair also follows the spirit of St. Francis in other ways. She currently has three pets that were either adopted from the local humane society or who found their way onto her property and eventually into her home.
One cat is named Angelina; the other is named Frances after St. Francis, she explained. Her little dog, a 13-year-old teacup poodle, is named Little Angel.
Little Angel was “shaking in her cage” when Blair first encountered the dog at the shelter, causing Blair to come back the very next day and adopt her: “I said, ‘you’re old, I’m old; let’s fall apart together.’”
Blair spends a great deal of her time writing what she calls “prayer poems,” poems about God, heaven, pro-life issues, reconciliation and more.
But she never sits down and thinks “I’m going to write a poem.”
Instead, she said, they “come” to her — sometimes while attending Mass, or sometimes at night when she wakes up.
Blair wrote so many poems that she decided to print them in a small book, titled “Heavenly Thoughts, Heavenly Advice, Heavenly Warnings,” and has been featured in an exhibit of the Contemporary Religious Artists Association in Kansas City, Mo.
Blair heard about the “Lumen Fidei: ‘Let Light Shine Out of the Darkness’” art exhibit in Tau-USA, the Secular Franciscan Order’s newsletter. She thought she would submit a few of her poems to the exhibition, but the entire book was accepted.
The exhibit was held from October through December 2014, and though Blair was invited to attend, she chose to stay home and care for her pets.
A few people have purchased her book, and local florist, Pat’s Field of Flowers, sells it too.
Blair is a retired real estate agent, having participated in the sale of Duns Scotus College in Southfield when it closed in 1979, as well as the Sullivan Building in Royal Oak.
A family once left her with an old St. Francis of Assisi statue when she sold their home, and Blair refurbished it. She still keeps up a hobby of restoring other religious statues she discovers.
Blair is a widow and lives by herself, but likes to reference one of her poems, “My God is Near,” which explains how she feels God’s presence through nature.
“I don’t mind being alone,” she said. “God is here with me and my little pets.”
