These are my last roses for Summer 2011. I was amazed at how healthy they looked after getting beat up by mean Irene last weekend. I am grateful for their pretty color among the wind strewn leaves, broken twigs and other debris. But there is something out of place about pretty pink flowers in the garden in September.
This is the ages-old tree that's been out in the front of our school since the school began 76 years ago. It was diseased and scheduled to be removed soon but storm damage dictated an earlier demise. It did not fare Hurricane Irene as well as those little roses did. This tree has seen a whole lot of the history of our school and town and my heart was broken at the thought of bringing it down. We had staff days this week filled with buzzing saws in the background and the occasional thud. Watching the progress made me teary eyed. Now it's just a blank spot out there. This is where Jim's last concert was held and that tree provided shade and comfort that night. No longer.
It was necessary to take the tree down and I thought I would be one of a few "old timers" distressed by this but I was wrong! Recently graduated students put up a Facebook page mourning the passing of this tree! I was very surprised by their reaction. It took taking that tree down for me to know there are other (younger generation) people who cared about it too. I think that discovery will help overcome my feeling of loss. There will be something out of place about that hole in the front yard, but I take comfort in knowing I"m not alone in missing the great tree.
No comments:
Post a Comment