We bought our house in 1999 and proceeded to completely change the landscape. My sister died in 2000 and we put in a memorial garden for her. Then a miracle happened and my granddaughter was born in 2001. As she grew she became increasingly interested in our landscape project. When she was about 3 or 4 we had to replace a dying curbside maple. We replaced it with a white oak, which will not doubt become the mightiest tree in the yard. We told her that it was “her tree”. she then made us assign a tree to everyone in the family. mine is a paper birch, her mom’s is an autumn lazy and her dad’s is a buckhorn fern that lies in the memorial garden. Her white oak is growing tall, strong and beautiful—just like her!
Contributed by Candice Thomas, Naperville, IL (grandmother to Cat Bradley!)
Treewhispers 
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