A Memorable Date for Me

You may have noticed that I did not post anything for Mother's Day.  My mother and I did not have a good relationship and some things are best left unsaid.  But Mother's Day often fell on another important day for me and that is today, May 9.

May 9 was the date of my father's birth.  Unfortunately, he only lived for 57 years, dying suddenly on Christmas Eve in 1980.  He was a loving and doting father and encouraged me in everything I ever wanted to do.

He was also a hunter of pheasant.  One year, after one of his hunting trips up north, he came home with two little evergreen trees.  He planted them in his small city lot.  Guess what?  Big spruce trees get too big for city lots.

My husband and I were living out here in the 'burbs in the mid-'70's with a lot that, while landscaped in front, still had lots of space in the back yard.  So, on a cold, rainy October morning, we drove to his home and dug up one of the trees to transplant.

Now, 40 years later, that tree still grows in my backyard.  This is my view from the living room doorwall:

Unfortunately, like many evergreens around here, it has needle-cast disease, for which there is no cure.  One day I, or a future owner, will lose the four spruce trees in the yard to this disease.

But in the meantime, I will think of my Dad every time I am out in the yard and look up at this majestic tree.  And wonder that it even survived our clumsy transplanting of it.

Thanks Dad.  How I wish you were here celebrating your 93rd birthday along with your family and three surviving siblings.  All my love, Dee (he never called me Denise).