by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – I just bought a brand-new candy apple red four-wheel-drive sport model, big-wheeled walker. Its name is Herschel, and it will replace my old walker, which features two small wheels and two pierced tennis balls. In him I am currently terrorizing the halls of my[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – During the 1950s I had a friend who was kind of quirky. We were both aspiring mountaineers and did some really nice hikes and climbs together. But there was this about him: He took the label off all his possessions because he didn’t want[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – Here I am, an old man in a cold month, waiting for spring, dictating to a young lady. It’s hard to grasp the difference in perspective between what I was doing happily – living alone at home in the company of a small dog[Read More…]

by Willem Lange BERLIN – This piece will be perforce much shorter than my usual exhalation. I’m writing it flat on my back in a hospital in Berlin, Vermont. My lovely daughter Martha is typing this as I attempt to pull together the events of the last four weeks. In[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – My first experience with surgery and general anesthesia occurred in 1949, at the so-called Children’s Hospital in Albany, N.Y. My grandfather, an old-fashioned Albany apothecary, probably had connections there; and my father, a clergyman, probably got a reduced rate. It was a simple, straightforward[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – For many decades now I’ve harbored the conviction that to live a vital, interesting life, I should try something new each week. This has led to many fascinating experiences, lots of new acquaintances, and now and then some distress, especially if the experience is[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – Christmas week 2022 in the United States was, depending upon your circumstances and point of view, exciting, challenging, profitable, calamitous, frustrating, expensive, or ruinous. The winter storm, as if programmed by an enemy, caught us at our most vulnerable, and even strained the best-prepared[Read More…]

EAST MONTPELIER – My son reminded me recently of the encouragement I sometimes offered when we were climbing through woods toward a summit or a ridge.