To the Editor:
Twenty years you’ve held me through thick and thin, season after season. You have been here to nurture me through life’s traumas and joys, held me in healing as I’ve navigated unexplored shores. As my days dwindle and I sidle up to your tides, pass my neighbors’ cattle grazing roadside, see newborns alongside my favorite farmstands, I am struck that this will be our first summer apart.
I will not be able to avail myself of daily swims, but hold dear those memories as I weather a rebirth from MGH’s Lunder 10. I am among the fortunate few, no symptoms though a diagnosis, with a single cure at hand. I have been supported, from the discomfort of first setting foot through Oncology’s door to braving a bone-marrow transplant in mid-June. Held by a community who’ve stepped in to support us, I leave my sweet dogs in wonderful hands and head to the hospital grateful to have donors who care. Infusions await, and are administered in my room; even a transplant takes only 30 minutes to set me on the road to health. I look forward to reuniting in September, celebrating another birthday on-Island, home of my heart, home of my soul. You will be in my dreams
Valerie Sonnethal
Chilmark
Valerie Sonnenthal owns Peaked Hill Studio in Chilmark, where she wrote the town column for eight and a half years. If you would like to learn more about this healing journey, please see peakedhillstudio.com/blog. –Ed.
