MARGARET KNIGHT

508-627-8894

(margaret02539@yahoo.com)

After some of the very cold days of late fall, the warm temperatures around Christmas were a nice surprise. At my house, we’re still picking kale and some less hardy greens from the garden, and the lawn, while probably not actually growing, is still somewhat green.

The Christmas Eve party at the community center was a big success. Many Chappaquiddickers — seasonal and year-round — as well as their guests came and enjoyed the bountiful and delicious food cooked by many people. A highlight of the evening was the carol singing, accompanied by the Pitch Pines — the Chappy recorder group that includes Hatsy Potter, Claire Thacher, Liz Villard, Anna-Liza Villard-Howe, and Sue Geresy — and Atzic Marquez on his violin. His wife Lisa, who has a beautiful voice, sang Oh Holy Night.

Many people remarked on the comfortable, cozy feeling at the community center, that it was like a family evening spent in front of the fire. Part of the comfort comes from the new arm chairs donated by the Roosevelt family after their wedding last summer, as well as from our fine collection of couches. We are certainly lucky to have this building that was constructed and is supported entirely by Chappy people’s generous donations and yearly subscriptions.

Jack McElhinney has been sprucing the building up, painting the upper windows and some doors, and power-washing the porch and upper shingles. He plans to apply preservative to the porch floor if the weather persists in being so mild.

The community center’s first potluck of the year will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 7 starting at 6 p.m., hosted by Fran and Bob Clay. All are welcome.

Jane Turnbull Knight died peacefully on Christmas morning at Windemere in Oak Bluffs. She had come there a little more than a week previously, and had been glad to be moving to the Vineyard, the place that always meant so much to her.

Jane came to Chappy beginning at age three when her aunt, Margaret Gostenhofer, married W. W. (Peter) Pinney, whose family (Child, Pinney, Bird) started coming to the island in the late 1800s and who later started the Martha’s Vineyard Co-op Dairy. Jane had many relatives on Chappy including the Jones, Phinney, Pinney, Tilghman, Gostenhofer, Knight and Morris families, and was mother of Robert, Michael, Richard and Dorothy Knight, Laura Lowenstein and myself.

As a child Jane enjoyed the freedom of Chappy summers in the 1920s and ’30s: going barefoot, riding ponies, picking blueberries, swimming, sailing and picnicking. There are several pictures of her as a child in the new Chappaquiddick recollections book, plus her description of the night the Chappy ferry caught fire, when she and others had to jump overboard in their long evening dresses.

During her short time at Windemere, Jane received excellent care from the many nurses and aides, several of whom knew our family. The sense of community there is very strong, partly because so many people know each other. It’s like a microcosm of the Island.

The second day there Jane sat down next to former high school teacher John Mayhew. When I introduced her, saying she was from Chappy, John asked if she knew Peggy Jones and the Turnbulls. Peggy was Jane’s sister, and John remembered the whole family, including the “three beautiful Turnbull sisters” — Peggy, Jane and Beum — and how he used to go fishing on Chappy with their father.

At Windemere my mother also saw another Chappaquiddicker she had known for many years: Ann Floyd’s mother, Eleanore Hoar, who turned 90 last June. Ann says that Eleanore is both proud of being 90 and a little flabbergasted that she’s that old. She came to Windemere from Havenside (where Varian Cassat now lives) in Vineyard Haven, where she lived after moving to the Island from New Canaan, Conn., about five years ago.

At Windemere, Eleanore says, her needs are taken care of and there is plenty going on around her — movies, concerts, bingo, excursions into the community, tea parties and many more activities — but she misses her privacy and having all her belongings around her. She also misses home-cooking, although the chef, who Ann says is related to Trip Barnes by marriage, does his best to give every resident what they like to eat.

Ann has learned to drive Windemere’s handicap van, which is available for anyone to use if they first go through a short training session at the VTA. Eleanore uses a wheelchair, so when Ann learned to drive the van — which she says is easy — she could take her mother many places, even off-Island.

Eleanore appreciates a phone call or visit, and enjoys receiving photos of Chappaquiddick scenes. Her phone number is 508-693-3075, and her address is Eleanore Hoar, c/o Windemere, Unit 3, P.O. Box 1747, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.