Life is Short

Many many years ago, my parents took my brother and me on a family vacation to the Von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. I was around 8 years old, and my brother was around 5. My parents love cross-country skiing, and the Von Trapp Lodge has an entire mountain of trails.

The Von Trapp Family Lodge is also semi-historical, since the Von Trapps are the family from The Sound of Music. They were, in fact, real people, and when they escaped the Nazis they came to Vermont and built this lodge. I’m still unsure of the connection between them and x-c skiing, but oh well.

My parents took us out skiing. I didn’t like it much. It seemed an awful lot like hiking, which I despised, except harder because your feet were extended about a meter. My brother took to it right away, determined to be the best, which he felt it necessary to be at everything.

After what seemed like hours of torture, we finally returned to the ski rental shop to find a scene going on. A woman was being brought in from the trails on snowmobile. Something was wrong, she wasn’t breathing. Dr. Dad went over to see if he could help. The ambulance arrived without any real equipment, since it was used to picking up skiers with broken legs. So, Dr. Dad got in the ambulance with her, helping the paramedics do CPR all the way to the hospital.

When he got back, later that night, he told my mom that life was short. And they bought a timeshare.

We have gone up to Stowe every year since then, during President’s week in February.  I even started to like x-c skiing after I turned 19. My parents are there right now.

This is my first year not going. I’ve never felt quite so far away.

My brother and I, circa 2003.