This letter is to thank my many amazing friends and the Martha’s Vineyard community for their ongoing help and support before and after my beloved husband of 56 years, Sheldon Hackney died on Sept. 12 after a long struggle with ALS.

Editor’s Note: Donald Mitchell, a lifelong Vineyarder, died last week at the age of 87. The following letter from him arrived at the Gazette office this week, more than one month after it was mailed, due to a post office error.

In the aftermath of the Navy yard shootings, we see and hear the same accusations where innocent law-abiding people are made the problem, and, in typical knee-jerk fashion, must be dealt with by punitive legislation as the immediate solution.

As Martha’s Vineyard residents for over 30 years and now living here half of the year, we had to respond to Danielle Pergament’s recent myopic article in The New York Times. She paints a rather clubby and selective picture of the Island and misses a bunch of noteworthy locals.

I appreciate the prayers and kindness shown to me and my family during my daughter’s illness. So happy to be back on-Island. So grateful. The following by Naomi Shihab Nye, from The Words Under the Words: Selected Poems, captures perfectly my sentiment at this time.

We recently held our seventh annual evening of music on the Lagoon at our home in Oak Bluffs. In the past the proceeds from donations from these musical evenings have benefitted the Lagoon Pond Association, the Steeple Fund Capital Campaign of the Federated Church, and the ongoing music ministry/organ program at the Federated Church.