Once there was a tree

One of my favorite children's books is the The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. It begins, "Once there was a tree." Our story begins the same way. Once there was a tree. We don't know who planted it or how it came to be where it was but it has blessed us greatly these last 15 years. When we moved into our home, we had a "tree expert" come to identify what types of trees we had on the property. He informed us that this tree was a sugar maple and that it needed to be cut down. Someone, at some point had cut out the center of the tree and it had done damage to the heart of it. I loved the tree


from the first moment I stepped under its shade. We determined that we were in no hurry to cut it down and we would just wait. Every spring I watched for signs that it was going to leaf out and sighed with relief when it did. The children and I would read stories under its branches, watch ants crawl on its trunk, the birds nesting in its towering height and watch the sunlight dimpling through the canopy as we lay beneath it. In the fall the leaves would turn a brilliant orange and almost over night drop to carpet the ground underneath. We would start raking and we would rake and rake and rake some more.
When the children were little the pile leaves would tower over their head and they would squeal with delight as they buried themselves in the cool quiet depths of the leaf piles. Now 14 and 12 DMD and DYS had not yet grown tired of raking all those leaves. Just last fall my nieces were given rakes and joined in the fun. One of the favorite things all ages enjoyed was filling the wheel barrow with the golden flakes and then taking turns riding on top of the pile to the compost where the leaves could be dumped.



"And the boy loved the tree tree very much. And the tree was happy. But time went by."




Our story and Shel Silversteins story diverge at this point. We continued to love our tree. I saw on line that one shade tree is worth five air conditioners. That was certainly something that we appreciated about our tree. I spent many hours on the back porch enjoying the shade.



I continued to hold my breath every spring. Large limbs would die off but the tree continued to grow and seemingly do well. We treated it for carpenter ants two years ago and noticed that this hole in the trunk seemed to have grown larger with the passing of the time. Very early in the spring we noticed that the branch coming directly above it had a large crack down the center of it. If there was the slightest breeze you could hear it creaking. Then we noticed that on the other side of the tree there was a crack that went from the top all the way to the bottom!

If we stood at just the right angle and squinted we could actually see the sunlight through the tree! There was no doubt that we were going to have to take action soon. Our hearts were heavy and we continued to delay the inevitable until one day last week we noticed that the crack had grown considerably. It was only a matter of time before the right wind came along and the tree split. Half ending up on our home and the other half on whomever was unfortunate enough to be parked underneath it at the time. The tree was on the city easement so when we showed them our concern they responded quickly and Friday morning I watched as our dear tree was quickly taken down. There were a few tears shed during this process. Neighbors who have lived in town long enough to know stopped to commiserate with us. People walking by paused to contemplate what their walk would look like the next day. The neighbors came out to comment on the loss.

Mr. and the children counted the rings that evening after the deed was done and came up with 88. A neighbor measured the diameter of the trunk and using an online program calculated the trees age closer to 120 years old. The tree is going to be missed greatly! Its absence has drastically changed the appearance of our home, the street and our neighborhood. Sitting on porch this afternoon the sun shone directly onto my face as I sat in my hanging chair. I suppose I will have to purchase outdoor shades for the three season porch to block the direct sun. Our electric bills will be higher. But what I will really miss is "just a quiet place to sit and rest."

"The End"