by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – Almost every day I treat myself to the blog of Heather Cox Richardson. I consider it sort of a stroking of my biases, which by this time of my life hardly need affirmation. But I learn stuff, too. In one of this week’s daily[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – Most of us, I daresay, learned the story of Bluebeard as children (though, apparently, it’s too frightening and thus off-limits to some modern children). The wealthy, but grotesque nobleman, before leaving on a trip, gives his new wife the keys to all the rooms[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – The switch from nursing home to personal home went off without a hitch. The multiple family members here to help effect it then left one by one, till I’m down to: Kiki; Herschel my four-wheel, silk-smooth walker; and Hagar, the hybrid SUV parked two[Read More…]

by Willem Lange EAST MONTPELIER – January 2023 was a month of Sundays, ending abruptly on the January 29, with a fourth and final Sunday fall on ice underfoot. My friend Bea and I left my house for church that morning, and that was the last time I saw the[Read More…]

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…]