The Tale of a Tree

Over 25 years ago, my husband returned from running errands on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee and a “tree” from McDonald’s.  McD’s was giving out the trees with each cup of coffee that day.  The tree was actually a little slip of evergreen about 7 to 8 inches long.  I asked my husband to plant it in view of our dining room window between our house and the neighbor’s house.

When our son was 4 years old, an ice storm weighed down branches and resulted in many broken limbs.  The swing set disappeared under the downed branches of a maple tree.  Our son sat looking out the dining room window at the evergreen which was by now about 4 feet tall.  Observing its heavy laden and drooping branches, he said, “I have to go outside and help that little tree.”  He bundled up and crunched through the snow.  I watched as he gently shook the ice from the branches of the tree, allowing them to spring back into a more normal position.

Seven years later, my mother had a massive stroke.  We cleaned out the dining room and put in a hospital bed.  She lived with us the last 5 months of her life, requiring round the clock care.    I put lights on the tree which was now a good size for a Christmas tree.  I had to use a ladder to put the lights near the top.  I was happy that the tree was there for her to see from her bed.  She died 2 days before Christmas.

In subsequent years, my father lived with us.  I plugged the lights in yearly as the tree grew taller and stretched the lights as far as they would go.  My father barely noticed.  He sat in the room that had once been our dining room with the drapes closed most of the time.  Eventually I had to remove the lights because the tree had grown too much for me to climb that high and the lights were also stretched too far.

The tree is now 30 feet tall, and we no longer live in that house, but when I pass by, I wonder how long it will be before someone with no sense of the tree’s history will decide to cut it down.  It would be no great loss to anyone else.  But, no one can take the memories from me.