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Cynthia Mattheson was devoted to the beach.
She visited as often as she could, sitting for hours while the sun warmed her face, sand filled the spaces between her toes, and the rhythm of the waves dissolved every worry she carried.
Her doctor, family, and friends warned her about the risks. She listened.
She covered herself completely — hat, fabric, sunscreen on every exposed inch — until the ritual of protection grew so complicated that the joy simply left. She stopped going.
After only a few years, she died quietly in a dark room from a vitamin D deficiency.
Cynthia is dead.