WESTHAMPTON — Anita Aloisi was going about her day as normal at Hanging Mountain Farm about three years ago when she felt something in her back pop.

“I couldn’t move after that,” Aloisi said.

Aloisi was rushed to the hospital, where she discovered that she had fractured her sacrum, the large triangular bone at the base of the spine. The cause of the injury was a large tumor that had been growing there, leading doctors to another discovery: Aloisi had thyroid cancer.

Now, after almost three years of radiation and learning how to walk again, Aloisi, 72, is back in action running a country store on the property. Her recovery journey is still ongoing, but she says she’s excited to get back to socializing with the community and welcoming neighbors onto her beautiful property.

“I’ve had to learn to do everything all over again,” Aloisi said. “It’s been a very difficult journey.”

Hanging Mountain Farm was home to the beloved Strawbale Cafe for 16 years, where Aloisi would cook up breakfasts for customers on weekends and during maple syrup season, accompanied by the farm’s own organic maple syrup. But following the pandemic and Aloisi’s subsequent injury, the cafe was closed and the space eventually bought by new owners.

But Aloisi missed talking with customers and providing them with goods from the farm, so her husband, Leo Aloisi, built out a building on the farm, which Anita now calls Anita’s Country Cottage. Since about April, she’s been selling the farm’s popular maple syrup alongside candy, snacks and other items at her Country Cottage.

Aloisi used to sell similar goods from her porch on the farm, but the opening of Anita’s Country Cottage has allowed her to offer a curated selection of goods as well as a space to invite community members into.

“I’m very excited about the store because it’s something I’ve always loved to do — I’ve always loved being around people,” Aloisi said. “It’s a way to get people out here to enjoy the property and the country.”

Anita Aloisi’s older sister, Judy Trzcienski, said her sister was “going crazy in the house,” and that opening the store had been a positive step.

“She’s becoming a lot more content now,” Trzcienski said.

Similarly, when the pandemic caused the Aloisis to shut down the Strawbale Cafe, Anita Aloisi wasn’t idle for long. She took it upon herself to make pizzas for the community, and Trzcienski recalled her making around 50 pizzas a weekend from her modest kitchen.

But Aloisi’s pizza-making endeavors were soon halted by the constantly increasing pain she was experiencing, which, unbeknownst to her and her doctors, was being caused by her tumor.

“It got to the point that she couldn’t stand to make even one pizza,” Trzcienski recalled. “She’s done beautifully, all things considered … She’s up and walking. We weren’t sure if she’d ever be able to walk again.”

Trzcienski noted that her sister has been no stranger to hardship throughout her life, with multiple traumatic losses and a previous open heart surgery to treat a heart defect. But through it all, Aloisi has remained strong and had a steadfast support system in her husband, sister and other family members.

“We tend to be a very close-knit family,” Trzcienski said.

Hanging Mountain Farm has been in the Aloisi family for three generations, and continues to offer its maple syrup year-round. Anita and Leo Aloisi still tackle sugaring in the spring, though they have stopped some of their past activities such as veggie production and farm tours as they have gotten older.

Though Anita Aloisi is still getting her strength back, she’s come a long way from the harrowing day of her injury. Without her husband, she says it wouldn’t have been possible.

“My husband has been a godsend,” she said. “He’s taken care of me, he’s taken care of everything here.”

Anita and Leo Aloisi have been married for more than 50 years. Leo Aloisi said that their relationship is as strong as ever, and he is always ready to care for his wife when she is in need.

“Once we were married, it’s for better and for worse, and there’s a little bit of worse here and there,” he said. “I know she’s got a long way to go because she’s not happy with where she is, but that to me is an incredibly positive sign.”

Leo Aloisi said his wife has been “working hard to get back to where she is so far.”

Community members and passers-by are welcome to stop by Hanging Mountain Farm for a cup of coffee and a snack, and customers can always expect a warm welcome and fresh maple syrup to be available.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.