I can't count the number of times my mother yelled our names when we were kids. The four names, always together and always in the same order. I can still hear it in my mind and it makes me smile. It's odd the things you hold on to from your youth.
Last month, on what would have been my brother's 47th birthday, Charlotte and I went tree shopping. I wanted to plant something to honor his memory, like the tree we planted for my Aunt Betty who passed away two years ago. We stopped by several nurseries and I found something I'd never seen before. It was a fruit cocktail tree. A single tree that grows four different fruit - peach, plum, nectarine and apricot. The four fruit, always together. It made me cry (tho pretty much everything does lately). I decided we had to plant that tree in Keith's memory and show that we will always be together. Somehow.
We finally got around to planting it today. Well, actually Matt did the planting while I stood silently and cried. Matt took great pains to make sure that the tree was planted just right. He gently dug the hole and sifted the soil, using only the good stuff. Matt spent a good hour getting that tree set properly in place because that's what his brother-in-law deserved. All the while I stood and watched and remembered.
It's simply beautiful.
Very very beautiful! HUGS
ReplyDeleteSorry I haven't been around for a while. I've lost touch with the blogging world.