I had the great privilege of being Ron Rappaport’s law partner for over 25 years. Ron’s passing is a great loss for his family, the Island community and our law firm.

As a conservation biologist on the Island for the past 30 years, I have become increasingly concerned about the future of our common pond turtles.

I have participated in the Cross-Island Hike at least 15 times, but at 77 years old, at the end of each year’s hike I mutter: “This will be my last one.”

Like most parents, we thought this day might never come. On June 9 our youngest child will graduate from Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School.

I joined a day trip run by the West Tisbury Congregational church to visit Penikese Island, an ancestral hunting land of the Wampanoag, 45 minutes by boat off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.

I never met Rez Williams, the revered Vineyard artist who died in February. Nevertheless, he was a kind of hero for me, an artist rooted in a place and community.