Rita Butt

We were absolutely delighted with ourselves, although we had a few worries, such as how we would ever pay back $13,000, which was a montrous sum at that time.

Our area was built on a one-time field with an occasional tree.

We didn’t have one.

One of our lucky treed neighbours offered us two new sprouts.  

The Old Fellow went over pulling a wagon, but returned with two tiny twigs in his hand.  

This was somewhat disappointing, but we managed to plant them in strategic places and hoped we wouldn’t mow them down. They were maples.

When the children were young, there was no shade anywhere except in the shadow of the house and we hoped for a small forest or at least the coziness of sitting under some kind of tree.

As the years (47) went by, our two sprouts grew into magnificent maples, havens for birds and squirrels and we loved them, especially in the fall when their leaves were beautiful.

We also hung baskets of flowers on hooks screwed into the trunks and, as the trees aged, the hooks grew.

Each fall, we had huge piles of leaves and so did our closest neighbours.

This year, we noticed unusual things.

Not only were green leaves falling, but also small twigs and branches.  

We knew something was wrong and worried our trees would be dying and maybe blowing off onto, not only our roof but the rooftops of our neighbours.

We called the ‘tree man’ who eventually informed us the trees had cavities.

This was news to us as we don’t even know what tree cavities were. We made the decision to have them cut down.

Now, the tree man is coming next week to do the job.

I look at my trees, which have not only shared my life, but watched me grow old with them. It brings tears to my eyes. Whoever would have thought you could love trees?

Of course, we will probably plant new small trees, but we will not grow old with them.