The Lessons of Butch – The Boston Globe

The Lessons of Butch – The Boston Globe: “Lasting relationships can begin in an instant. Planets align and people meet and, after a glance or a few words, you can extrapolate 40-some years down the line and, behold, you know you’ll still be talking and meeting and helping each other.

“In the case of Richard ‘Butch’ Varno, that instant came in 1961, when a football player at Middlebury College in Vermont named Roger Ralph asked Butch and his grandmother if they needed a ride. It was snowing, and they had just been to the Middlebury football game. Butch, who has cerebral palsy, was snowplowing along in his wheelchair when Roger helped the pair into his car and drove them home. It would be the beginning of a most remarkable friendship – between Butch and the Middlebury community.”