We would like to express our deep gratitude and appreciation to Mike Hathaway of the Edgartown harbor master’s office as well as to the Edgartown police, ambulance, fire and rescue personnel, the Chappy ferry personnel, the staff of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital emergency room and especially to the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services emergency services staff. All these people were efficient, professional and just as importantly, kind and sensitive in a challenging situation. We thank you. We are very grateful to live in this unique and caring community.

Daryl and Richard Knight

In an effort to stall the deterioration of an eroding bluff in Oak Bluffs, the town may keep the seaward side of East Chop drive closed for the summer.

The Oak Bluffs Council on Aging is facing possible reorganization of personnel following a months-long investigation that found mismanagement of a fund operated in connection with the senior center.

Four Island students were named to dean's list at Northeastern University for spring 2014 semester.

Maili P. Scott of Vineyard Haven graduated from St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., on May 18.

As a working task force on the Vineyard begins to prepare for a graying population in the decades ahead, the state Secretary of Elder Services paid a visit to the Island last week to hear about their work in tackling the issue of healthy aging.

Secretary Ann Hartstein said there are unique challenges involved in creating supportive services for the elderly on the Vineyard.

Jenny Mullin of Edgartown graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans on May 17.

The three down-Island towns have been awarded a joint grant to hire a full-time energy coordinator.

The $50,000 grant will be given to Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and Tisbury by the state department of energy resources, and will fund a one-year salary beginning in fiscal year 2015.

Shaelah Huntington of West Tisbury graduated with a bachelor's degree from Connecticut College on May 18.

On the day Jennifer Tseng’s daughter was born, her father called her at the hospital. He called to congratulate her, but also to tell her he was having health problems which at the time were unknown. The illness turned out to be terminal cancer.

Red Flower, White Flower is Ms. Tseng’s first book of poetry since that phone call. In it she looks at the intersection between the extreme emotions that came in the years after her daughter’s birth, and the ways that these emotions converge.