On Saturday early evening on May 26th of Memorial Day weekend my family was in Oak Bluffs to get ice cream — along with half of the Vineyard it seemed. The mood was joyous: music pouring out, crowds, spontaneous dancing. My granddaughter was even pulled into the middle of it.

It was perfect until, savoring our ice cream while parked on Narragansett avenue to watch the sunset, the car battery died. Off went my son to find help, and a man in the midst of a party on his porch came back with a charger and his car. Soon the problem was solved. As we were thanking him profusely (we were due to leave the Vineyard at 7:30 a.m. the next day) he answered: “If we can’t be kind to strangers then what are we?”

His name was Bob. We were there to remember our Bob, who was put to rest in the West Tisbury Cemetery two years ago. It did seem a bit uncanny. He was that kind of guy too.

Dianthe Eisendrath

Lexington