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View ProfilesPublished October 26, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.
Autumn in Vermont is short-lived. Rain, wind and nighttime temps all affect its intensity and duration. No matter how breathtaking it is, the seasonal blaze of color comes to the same inevitable end. Getting out in the woods to witness it feels akin to visiting a dying friend. Similarly, the goodbye never feels sufficient.
That's one reason I played hooky from work last Friday and drove to Charlotte for a midday walk up Mount Philo. With the leaves past peak in most of the state, I knew my last best chance to see some lingering glory would be right here in the Champlain Valley. There's no better view of it than from atop the 968-foot mountain, and I'd get to walk through the trees to reach it.
On a new trail, no less. A year ago, Seven Days wrote about the redesigned footpath to the top of Philo, an alternative to the popular paved road that corkscrews up to the parking lot at the summit. Happily forgoing the tarmac, I took the new route, ascending wood and stone stairs, rounding enticing curves and passing giant boulders. What was once a steep, slippery scramble is now a marvel of engineering and landscape design that winds up at the westernmost lookout — my favorite — then proceeds up to the official summit, where Adirondack chairs await.
Dozens of squealing schoolkids were on the way down when I climbed up, but I was happy to step off the trail to let them pass. Juggling backpacks and water bottles, they merrily traipsed over the soft carpet of the dead autumn without the burden of seeing mortality in every downed leaf.
This week's Death Issue wasn't motivated by the season — though the timing, right before Halloween, surely was. The truth is: Reporters like to get to the bottom of things, and life's end is almost certainly its greatest mystery. Over the years, our writers and editors have pitched countless stories on the topic, from alternative burials to near-death experiences.
Circa 2019, we started collecting the ideas in earnest.
Then came the pandemic and, with it, death on a scale unfamiliar to people outside of war zones. The topic was relevant, all right, but too grim for an entire issue.
Now we're daring to resurrect it, with a mix of stories that range from an exploration of the changing funeral industry to a feature about a Brattleboro choir that sings to hospice patients. There's an in-depth obituary of the man who improved Vermont's Death With Dignity Law — before using it himself — and an essay by a comedian who has been processing the deaths of her parents through her standup act.
We share a similar goal: Facing something we all fear, but also have in common, makes it a little less scary. Hopefully our collective efforts make for interesting reading as fall gives way to what follows: the long, cold prelude to spring.
Tags: From the Publisher
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