Sit through enough local government board meetings, especially about affordable housing, and you’re bound to hear about an imaginary character who would live above the shops in the village and volunteer for the ambulance corps or fire department.
If only these mythic people could afford to live here, our problems would be solved, the East End would regain its down-home character, and the story would have a happy ending.
Jennifer DiPretoro, who lives in Sag Harbor Village, manages Tutto il Giorno, and became an advanced emergency medical technician through the Sag Harbor Ambulance Corps, is just that type of character.
However, at present she has a problem, and it has nothing to do with housing affordability.
Instead, last week, while in Madrid on vacation, Ms. DiPretoro was suffering from coughing fits. When a friend got her an appointment with a local pulmonologist, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She is young — barely 50, if that.
“I thought it was bronchitis,” she said in a text. “By the time I saw him I was nearly in respiratory failure, and he admitted me immediately to the hospital.” She is receiving a full PET scan this week to determine if the cancer has spread.
Complicating matters are her oxygen levels, so low that she is not permitted to fly home. She is stranded in a Madrid hospital with an ugly diagnosis and no health insurance.
Lia St. John, a friend who worked with Ms. DiPretoro at Muse, has started a GoFundMe to help pay for her wave of upcoming expenses. Donations can be made here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-jens-cancer-care-abroad.
“I just wanted to make sure that she gets the support she needs, because it’s such a scary situation,” Ms. St. John texted. “The money will be used primarily for medical bills. She will also need help with living expenses while in Spain, as she will now be staying much longer than anticipated.”
Ms. DiPretoro came to Sag Harbor full time in 2014, after closing a health food store she’d run on Shelter Island. After her mother died, she’d moved to the island to be closer to her best friend.
Until 2022, she was a volunteer with the ambulance corps. She received her E.M.T.-C.C. distinction in a class with Mayor Tom Gardella.
“Jen will have this community’s support just as she has supported our community,” the mayor said in a phone call Monday. “We’re going to be there and help her get through this tough time in her life.”
In healthier times, Ms. DiPretoro is a fixture on Main Street in Sag Harbor, walking her dog, Sam, multiple times a day. She has used her medical training at odd times, at the restaurant or even on Main Street.
“I can’t even look at the GoFundMe because it embarrasses me,” she wrote, “but I am grateful for it. I feel shy about it, but I guess now is not really not the time for that. I’m just trying to get a grip on what I need at the moment. This all happened quickly.”
She’s not sure how long she’ll end up being in Spain.
“To come home only to not be able to afford care seems insane,” she said.
