In many ways they are polar opposites, as different as North and South, their lives divided by the Mason Dixon Line. One is the consummate mother, wife and gardener, her laundry done, hair parted straight, thoughts quiet and ordered. The other is a consummate hostess, house full of people, dog on the loose, hair flying, calendar cluttered, a poet who scribbles her lines at all hours with whatever writing implement is at hand. And despite all these differences — or perhaps because of them — Rose Styron and Lucy Hackney are also fast friends.
Come May for the past two years, a pair of ducks have come to nest on Rose Styron’s lush lawn overlooking the outer Vineyard Haven harbor. “They eat a lot, at least the mother eats a lot, and the father, a gorgeous green-necked mallard, guards her. And when she’s fat enough, she goes to make a nest under the dock,” Mrs. Styron said, looking out at the water from her porch.
