Fran Lynggaard Hansen
‘We’re all strong’
Thelma Sharlow, who has lived in town for 77 of her 94 years, says that her life "has been complicated."
Her story started in the hills of West Virginia where her father cared for Sharlow and her two sisters, Kitty and Eva Ann, after their mother walked away from the family when Sharlow - then Thelma Colleen Facemire - was 5 years old.
‘Talented, humble, and irreplaceable’
Lester Dunklee, 75, prepares to close down his machine shop and retire, bringing to a close a century-old Brattleboro institution
At almost 75 years of age, Lester Dunklee is one of those original kinds of Vermonters who are issued so many words at birth. He tries not to let go of too many of them at one time. And yet, once he gets to know you, the stories, historical...
A tall order
A southern Vermont trade consultant has worked to help bring to market a nut that indigenous people in Guatemala have used for 2,000 years — a process with formidable complications and, for impovershed workers, a promise of sustainable reward
Ian Diamondstone was on his phone speaking with a key player representing a major natural beverage company when a realization hit the logistics and trade consultant. The Brattleboro native, who operates an international trade consulting practice from Putney, realized that there, around the company's conference table discussing the ramón...
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A life’s work
In 2004, Carolyn Peck created We Remember Dr. Grace Burnett, a film about the fifth woman to practice medicine in Vermont and Brattleboro's first female physician. Burnett, one of the town's most beloved citizens, delivered the filmmaker, who lived across the street from her and her family, and who employed her mother in the medical office. The film was shown locally and was eventually donated to Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. But amid the chaos of renovations to the hospital campus at...
Local EMS pioneer remembered as steadfast community volunteer
Verne Bristol, one of the founders of Rescue Inc., died in his sleep on Aug. 23, six days after he celebrated his 91st birthday. "Of course, we're very sad to see him leave us," says Patty Bristol Higgins, one of Bristol's two daughters. "He always said he wanted to go quickly and didn't want any of us kids hanging around a hospital bed. I'm so glad that he went peacefully in his sleep." Bristol, one of 17 children, grew up...
Helping a community in ashes from 5,000 miles away
"I've never been so proud to be a member of the Maui community. They are leading the searches because we don't have enough emergency service personnel on the island," says Crystal Rollins, 34, a native of Stratton. Rollins moved to Hawaii after graduation from Castleton State College in Vermont and has lived in Maui since 2011. She says she is "most fortunate" that she lives in Kihei, 23 miles to the east of the hardest-hit town, Lahaina. While Rollins is...
Serving up tasty images
Imagine one of the hottest days this summer, when the air was thick with humidity and your car is scorching hot inside. On one such day, Clare Barboza, internationally known food photographer, needed to shoot a magazine cover. The subject? Ice cream. "When I went to the store to buy it, the ice cream was already soft," says Barboza, of Brattleboro, with a hearty laugh. "You can imagine the rest." Barboza, who hails from the state of Washington, has always...
‘We knew this storm was going to be bad’
When he began his day on the morning of Sunday, July 9, Drew Hazelton was planning for 5 to 7 inches of water to fall on southern Vermont. Hazelton, the chief of operations at Rescue Inc., knew that the nonprofit's two swift water rescue teams would be called into service. The state provides equipment. In turn, "we agree to be there when we are needed," he says. And in this case, Hazelton adds, "we knew we would be called out...