To the Editor:
When will we begin to recognize what we are losing by not making this Island a place where senior citizens who have given so much to our community can continue to thrive — when those who work here to support us can find reasonable living arrangements?
This spring, my sister, Gretchen Coleman-Thomas, will have to move off-Island due to the lack of housing for those who live on a fixed income.
Throughout our childhood, Gretchen, our sisters Marcia and Stephanie, our brother Bo, and I spent every summer here, from the day Boston schools closed to Labor Day, when Oak Bluffs “closed.” As she grew older, Gretchen came for a few weeks every summer to spend time with our grandmother in the family cottage in the Highlands of Oak Bluffs. Gretchen’s grandchildren are the fifth generation of family members who love this Island.
After working in human resources in Massachusetts and California, Gretchen retired to the Island in 2009. In 2012 she needed dialysis, due to polycystic kidney disease. For five months she joined other dialysis patients who left the Island three times a week to use the Mashpee Dialysis Center for treatment. At that time, the M.V. Hospital employed only enough staff to manage two shifts for the three dialysis chairs. Gretchen challenged that practice, and through her persistence and perseverance, the hospital now maintains enough staff for three shifts to service the Island’s dialysis patients.
In 2010 Gretchen began her 11 years of service on the Oak Bluffs personnel board. She continued serving even after becoming a kidney transplant recipient in 2019. Gretchen was chair of that board for 10 years.
Gretchen has been a guest speaker at the Island’s NAACP Martin Luther King Luncheon, and she continues to be a successful Island wedding and events planner who consistently supports Island vendors for her clients. Today, at 79 years old, she volunteers as a mentor to a resident at the Harbor Homes New York Ave. Women’s House.
Last summer, Gretchen received word that the house that she had rented and called home for 12 years was going to be sold. Just a few days after going on the market, it sold on Oct. 26, 2021. We remain hopeful that she will soon find year-round housing here.
Throughout her life, Gretchen has found ways to contribute to this community that she loves so much. It will be a shame if she is now forced to leave her beloved Island.
Seniors who have spent a lifetime here deserve to spend their lifetimes here. The affordable housing crisis on Martha’s Vineyard continues to wreak havoc on the lives of senior citizens like Gretchen and the many professional and skilled workers who must travel daily to and from the Island to provide us with the care and support we so often take for granted.
We can do better than this because we are better than this.
Jocelyn Coleman Walton
Oak Bluffs