West Tisbury

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What a busy time with Easter, Passover, Annual Town Meeting and elections.

The West Tisbury Church has planned a Tenebrae service tonight, April 5, at 7:30 pm. Easter begins with a 6 am sunrise service at Ann Nelson’s (Littlefield Lane, across from the Polly Hill Arboretum). At 10 am, Rev. Cathlin Baker will lead the traditional service at the Ag Hall this year instead of at the church. Sunday School and the Easter Egg Hunt all take place at the Ag Hall.

Passover will be a little different, too, beginning on Friday evening. Regular Shabbat services and Religious School at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center are cancelled, so Seder dinners can be shared at home. Rabbi Caryn Broitman will lead the Community Seder on Saturday evening at 5:30 pm. Call 508-693-0745 to make a reservation.

A Springtime Egg Hunt at the West Tisbury Library on Saturday morning, April 7. Vineyard Gardens will hold its Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday, at 1 pm SHARP. Be on time; events proceed very quickly.

West Tisbury’s Annual Town Meeting is Tuesday, April 10, starting at 7 pm, in the school gym. Town elections are Thursday, April 12, 12 noon to 8 pm, at the Public Safety Building.

Marjorie Pierce called this morning to ask that everyone involved with the West Tisbury Church’s Community Suppers be thanked for their participation. She called the dinners “successful and joyous, with abundant food and fellowship.” They are done for this year, but will resume next winter, an opportunity to join with neighbors for a convivial meal. Special thanks to Cronig’s and The Black Dog Bakery, who donated meat and bread for the meals.

Welcome to Dexter Patrick Cooney, who was born March 21 at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. He is home on Old Courthouse Road with his parents, Dan and Carolina, big brother Dashiell, and great-grandmother Jean Wexler.

Rosalie Powell and Coco Adams are home from Florida, where Rosalie traditionally spends her winters. They stayed on Anna Maria Island, then drove through Naples to Key West, enjoying lots of antiquing along the way. A surprise highlight was calling her sister on the cell phone and finding out that Bernice and her husband, Pierce Kirby, were in Florida themselves, visiting Pierce’s family. That lead to a detour, allowing the families to spend some time together. Now Rosalie is ready to resume her rug hooking, teaching, and playing with her great-granddaughters, Natalie and Isabella Larsen.

Carol Carrick is back, too. She and Jack Burton have returned from their winter in Florida, also via a circuitous route, so they could stop and visit friends along the way.

Mike and Cathy Minkiewicz have spent the last four weeks traveling 8,000 miles across the country to California and back. Cathy kept a blog filled with insights and descriptions of the trip. They went to some interesting places, both historical and cultural, and just plain human-interesting.

Xing Senna was the guest of honor at her 6th birthday party, March 23. Xing has been studying Chinese with Theresa Yuan and is fascinated with all aspects of Chinese culture, customs, and language. Her party favors were gold foil-wrapped coins in red envelopes, symbolic of good fortune. Three-dimensional paper flowers and cats, purchased on a trip to New York’s Chinatown, decorated the room. There were crafts and Chinese music for amusements, and Chinese pudding instead of a birthday cake. Xing’s aunt, Amelia Tseng, came from New York City for the occasion.

Richard Limber was putting up his pastel drawings on the library’s art wall when I was there Sunday afternoon. They are all figurative, worked on wet or dry paper, to glorious effects. They will be on display throughout April, with an artist’s reception later this month.

The Bunch of Grapes is partnering with Island schools in an Island Schools April Book Fair. They will donate 25 percent of pre-tax price of all books purchased in their Children’s Department from April 5 to 15. Each school will have bookstore credit towards purchasing materials for classroom and library collections. Online purchases qualify, so if you are reading this from off Island, make a note in the “comment” field of the purchase form.

Year-rounders were treated to an amazing program last Sunday afternoon when the Murphy family celebrated what would have been Stan Murphy’s 90th birthday (April 2) with a concert, talk, and slide show upstairs at the Grange Hall. Stan’s son, David Murphy, organized the slides and narration. David’s son, John, performed the musical accompaniment on his grandfather’s guitar. It was all fabulous. Stan’s paintings dated from 1948, the year he and Polly moved to the Island year-round. So many of the people and scenes in the paintings were familiar and dear to me. It was my best memories of my life on the Island. I came in 1982, so can only imagine how moving the presentation was to people who have spent their lives here together. Family friends, children in varying stages of childhood to adulthood, beloved pets, landscapes studied and captured in every season. It was one of the best afternoons of my life. Thank you so much.

Condolences to the family of artist, writer, and teacher Al Hurwitz, who died last week in California, where he had been visiting his daughter. They went to an art gallery together, their last outing. Al died at age 91. I am sad and will miss him, our conversations about art, his energy, his critiques.

The accident that took Judy Morse is another thing altogether, sudden and tragic. She was someone I didn’t know well, but what I knew I liked a lot. We always saw each other at Chris and Robin’s art openings, at the library, at church, at Windemere, just around town. She was genuine and generous; a warm smile and a kind greeting were her way. To Warren, Louise, Chris and Sheila, Katie, Andrea and Juliette, Robin and Kevin, and Alex, please accept my sympathy and condolences.