Adios amigo

My companion tree

Have you ever found a close friend in a tree? Have you made a connection with it, engaging in conversations, exchanging feelings, and sometimes even complaining about someone to it? This is my story of such an odd companion I had, a tree. I’ve never given it a name; I simply refer to it as “my tree.”

When I first moved into the home near this tree, there were a few things that instantly made me fall in love, one of them was this tall gum tree that stood proudly just across the road from my house. Its shiny grey bark and its divine presence, patiently giving up its branches to the noisy Australian birds, all made me fall in love with it. We formed an unspoken bond instantly, one that takes years to form between humans.

My tree

However earlier in 2023, almost two years since our move, we received a letter from the council regarding a road expansion project. My heart sank instantly as I somehow sensed it could mean that they were cutting all the trees. Months passed by, and my husband and son reassured me that nothing might happen, that they might not go through with the expansion after all. While this brought me some relief, I remained sceptical whenever I spotted trucks or construction workers near my house.

Then, in a month, it all began. The construction work started, and they tied ribbons on the trees, green and pink. My tree was given a pink ribbon, a sign of its upcoming ill fate. Just as my intuition had warned, they started cutting down all the trees tied with pink ribbons.

Deep in my heart I knew it was time to say farewell. One weekend, I took a walk to my tree and said goodbye. I took a photo of it standing tall, gazing down upon me with what seemed like a sense of fulfilment. Perhaps it had been waiting all these years for this moment, to transition from being a tree to something more.

The following week it happened. They cut my tree, and it fell with a thud. The fall echoed both outside and inside my being ( I still have the video I took). I cried like I lost someone close, but I was more prepared on that day than I had been earlier in the year. I’ve grown accustomed to grief in recent months. In my head, it’s not gone but evolved, like all the souls who have departed from my life.

Sometimes I wonder whether my tree was cut down to test my strength, to see if I could weather the trial of letting go with grace which in two years I was to be tested again harshly, with my pet’s passing. Life has its own peculiar ways of teaching lessons, and I know this better now and I surrender to the teacher.

Adios amigo! Until we meet again, my friend.