On September 12, 2026, our dearest Basha took flight from this earthly world to soar with the sandhill cranes.
Barbara Sherwin Miles was born to Rufus E. Miles and Nelle P. Miles on July 14, 1943. She spent her first several years in Chevy Chase, Md. Basha was a true artist and a scholar with a rich academic history. She graduated from Earlham College in 1965 with a BA degree in English literature. She then attended the University of Chicago, where she earned an MA. She studied Jungian psychology, wrote countless poems, and dove deeply into understanding the human connection to spirit and the natural world.
In 1967, Basha began working at Spring Lake Ranch in Shrewsbury, Vt., where she discovered her love for therapeutic work with children. Her truest passion and life’s work was with Deaf/Blind children and their families and teachers. Basha received a second master’s degree from the Perkins Institute for the Blind, where she and her colleague cowrote the book Remarkable Conversations: A Guide to Developing Meaningful Communication With Children and Young Adults Who Are Deaf/Blind. She traveled the world consulting and sharing her knowledge of reaching, communicating with, and teaching Deaf/Blind children and young adults.
In the 1990s, Basha found a beloved community in Middletown Springs and built herself a house on the land at Rocks and Trees Community. Like her life, in many ways her home was a piece of art and a prayer, always brimming with beautiful crafts, poetry and found objects. In the early 2000s, she was called to work with the Remembrance Community based in Lincoln, Vt., where she met her beloved goddaughter, Carrie Doggett. She moved to Bristol, Vt., for the final two decades of her life, where she could often be spotted taking slow, contemplative walks around the village with her fluffy dog, Bella. She had a keen eye for four-leaf clovers and often walked with her eyes to the ground.
Basha was an extraordinarily gifted person: a potter, an artist, a poet, a prolific writer and an interpreter for the deaf with her fluent sign language. She gifted us with her gorgeous ceramics, her seasonal poems, her artworks, her love of animals, and memories of her generous and inquisitive nature. She had a calm and kind way and a distinct giggle. She helped found the Mountain River Sangha in Bristol several years ago, and exploring Buddhist practices with that devoted circle of friends meant the world to her.
Basha is survived by her sister, Mary M. Patten of St. George, Maine; nieces, Jessica Hartley and Molly Patten, and their families; many Miles and Herbert cousins, whom she loved dearly; her goddaughter, Carrie, in Massachusetts; and numerous friends and colleagues all over the world. A green burial, requested by Basha, has been arranged at the Vermont Forest Cemetery in Roxbury, Vt.