Goodbye

Goodbye

Down the block from me is a tree, a large ash tree. This year the tree is struggling, lack of rain and lack of care

So the town tree board decided this tree needed some help. They opened the town purse strings to help.

Donations were collected, monies raised with bake sales. Kids had lemonade stands under the tree. The city fertilized the tree, watered the tree, put a fence around it to keep out deer.

But at the end of the long, hot summer, the tree said goodbye. It was about fifty years old, per the city records, a long life for an ash tree. Some were glad, they didn’t like the ‘trash tree’. Many said ‘Good, the emerald ash borers are on the way. This tree will not be a harbor for those bugs.’ Others were sad to see it cut down but hoped a new tree would take its place.

Then there was Ashley. Little Ashley was named after that tree. The tree lived next to her yard.

The day before the tree was to be cut down, Ashley and her mom went to say goodbye.

Ashley spread a blanket under the tree as mom watched. Then Ashley laid out the players in the drama.

“We’ve come to say goodby, tree friend. We will have a short ceremony, then we will let you rest before you go away tomorrow.”

Ashley placed Gloria the monkey, Andrew the teddy bear, Matt the stuffed dog, and Henrietta the fairy princess doll in a line. Mom kneeled to hold hands.

“God made you, I loved you, we will miss you. Amen.”

Ashley hugged the ash tree, gathered her toys in the blanket, then walked home with mom.

When they came to cut it down, the tree had no leaves.


W/C 298