Around Town – June 11, 2020
Congratulations to Alex Graham, M.D., for his appointment as a family physician at the Charlotte Family Health Center. Alex grew up in Charlotte, where his parents were both doctors, his mother on the staff of the Charlotte Family Health Center. Medicine was not the family’s only calling, however. Living on a “rough and tumble farm,” they raised most of what they ate.
Alex says he had a “wonderful, nerdy childhood, doing every sport and activity Vermont afforded.” Music was in his repertoire, and he played several instruments. After prep school he went to Harvard where he “majored in rowing . . . and English.” He then earned an M.B.A. and went to work for Patagonia, traveling all over the world, but he found Vermont hard to resist. He came back to his home state and became a director and owner of a travel-based school for boys with emotional and behavioral disabilities. This is what drew him into medicine, gaining his pre-med requirements from UVM (while coaching crew), then going on to earn an M.D. from Tufts on its “Maine Track” in Portland. Alex says “It feels perhaps a little too Norman Rockwell-esque to be doctoring at the same clinic where my mom worked. But it’s a great organization and an exciting time to be there.” He says they are looking to redesign their clinic to deal more effectively with the post-coronavirus.
Congratulations also to several young Charlotte writers whose poems have appeared in The Burlington Free Press’ Young Writers Project. On May 15, Margaret Eagan’s verse titled “All my poems are written at midnight,” written with the moon watching, “when the day gets quiet and the work is done.” Her words flow as the “stars twinkle merrily.” On May 29, Lila Taylor saw her poem “Unchanged” on the Project page. In it she dreams she is a bird singing a song, and nothing can hold her back, a bird with a sweet song that remains unchanged. In the June 5 issue, Rose Lord is into burlap sacks, and Ava Rohrbaugh, into seashells. Having jokingly been called a burlap bag that’s held open by iron bars, Rose does fear that she has sprung a leak, and it scares her; one day the burlap will fray and the iron bars will rust and crack, and she will become empty. To Ava, people are seashells that wash into the waiting hands of families to help them ashore. “We stay content, stay smiling, stay strong.”
Sympathy is extended to family and friends of Jan (Mike) Harford who died in Brooksville, Maine, on May 14 at the age of 84. Mike married Ellen Hildreth, and together they raised two daughters while living in Grand Isle and Charlotte. Upon his retirement from Fletcher Allen Health Care, they moved to Maine. The family asks that donations in his memory be made to the Brooksville Free Public Library, 1 Town House Road, Brooksville, ME 04617.
Sympathy is extended to family and friends of Philip Bothwell who passed away May 30 at the age of 35. Philip had many connections to Charlotte. He volunteered for the Fire Department and the Charlotte Volunteer Rescue Squad. He was predeceased by his great grandparents, Howard and Alice McDurfee, and his grandmother, Janett Bothwell, all of Charlotte. His surviving family includes his mother, Loralyn Bothwell, and stepfather, John McCaffrey, formerly of Charlotte, now of Monkton; sister Tia Loyer, brothers Brandon Bothwell and Zachary McCaffrey and their families; and nephews Dillion Bothwell, Damion Bothwell and Keagan Bothwell and niece Kayla Bothwell. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, those wishing to remember him donate to his family.