For many years I passed a dogwood and cedar on my way to and from home. There are lots of dogwoods and cedars along this road, but these two had grown intertwined. In the spring the white blossoms of the dogwood popped against of the green of the cedar. In summer, they offered two shades of green, and in the fall the burnished copper of the dogwood leaves and the red berries sparkled against the cedar branches. In winter, I imagined the cedar protecting the dogwood, wrapping it with its branches, keeping it safe and warm until spring. The two trees seemed like a married couple, husband and wife, complementing and protecting each other over the years.
Finally, one day in late summer, I drove by my favorite trees and gasped. A road crew had come by and cut down the cedar. It was gone. The dogwood, forlorn and also damaged, stood, drooping. It lasted through the winter but in the spring, the blossoms were few and the leaves were sparse. It was as if its spouse had died, and it no longer had the will to live. Finally, toward the end of that year, the dogwood fell.
Maybe I’m just getting old and sentimental, but I shed a few tears for those trees.
