It wasnt “just” a tree to me

I dont even know what to title this post. I sit here early am..teary

All around me is the roar of the wind gusts and the shreiks of rain slamming the side of our home. Tropical Storm Faye is here.  I woke this morning to all of these sounds wondering what I would see when I looked into our front yard. As soon as I entered the kitchen… I knew.

Normally peeking above my kitchen shutters is the gentle dancing of the petite leaves of our Chinese Elm. She was gone.. as I got closer to the window, a lump formed in my throat, and thoughts of J, E and I bringing her home and planting her flooded my memory. My tears started to fall.

When I opened the shutters to get a better look I saw that she snapped at the base. My hope was that the roots had come up out of the ground-no…. she’s gone.

I quickly went into the bedroom where J lay sleeping, I touched his arm and said, I am so upset.. The tree… its down. I slthered back into the bed to lie there and cry.

She had grown soo much since we first planted her. We often would come across pictures and laugh at how puny she looked in our yard- but no longer.. Now she had become the home to many momma birdies building nest for their babies to come..she cradled the first bird feeders our children made in Sunday school, she was the keeper of the gigantic platic Easter eggs the Easter Bunny tossed high into our tree every Easter Eve. She was the shady tree our children sat under having their first picnic together.

Every March as I sit at the kitchen table looking out at her she told me with her tiny mint green buds, “Spring is here!”

 She represented not only life and beauty, but the growth of our family has gone through in the last 9 years. Sometimes slow..sometimes more than the year before-but always reaching as high as she could. Leaning ever so slightly, yet always trying to straighten herself to stand tall, be beautiful and upright.

  I will miss her.