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!)
What an absolutely beautiful story written by my cherished sister! This love of nature had been nourished by our mother and our sister who passed in 2000. What a tribute to both of them.
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