Venus on the Right

One of the joys of our summer vacations on Nantucket is seeing our friend Eileen, now in her early 70s, who lives year-round on the island. For years, Eileen taught biology in Providence at the Quaker girls' school my wife attended. But in all her years on the mainland, her heart never left her native Nantucket. At the end of every school year, she hurried home to enjoy summer on the island. When she retired, she went back for good to her cozy house at the edge of a meadow and settled in with her dog and cat. She took a part-time job at the library and continued her vigorous support of local causes: land conservation, the science museum, island history. She loved taking us to her “secret places,” little patches of forest where Eastern yellowthroats nest or rare wildflowers bloom, the best places for beach plums and blueberries.

During one of our walks, I asked Eileen how she got through the long Nantucket winters. We talked about the books she read and her other diversions, and then she said, “I like to watch the way the sun sets over my meadow every afternoon, how it moves north and south as the seasons change.” Close observation of the natural world-the direction of the wind, the rise and fall of the tides, the night sky in different seasons, gave her great satisfaction.

Eileen's first extended time away from Nantucket was to attend Radcliffe on an academic scholarship. When her class held its 50th reunion last summer, she was chosen to give the keynote address, a tribute to the esteem in which her classmates hold her and to her …