The Forest Tree

Just like we planted a tree for our niece Zoe and one for our nephew Grayson, we planted one for Forest. Chris and I hemmed and hawed on what type of tree to plant…did we want something majestic? Something edible? Something flowering? We ended up going with a Chickasaw plum variety called ‘Gold’—of course we can’t find anything online about this supposed variety so it will be anyone’s guess what the tree will end up looking like. My original plan when Forest was born was to bury the placenta in a hole with the tree, a symbolic gesture. Well, I was barely conscious when they got around to talking about the placenta and there was some talk between the nurses and doctors about the legality of sending it home with us and in the end I didn’t have the energy to fight for it. Instead we buried the bit of his umbilical cord that fell off a week after he was born. Yeah, I’m kind hippie like that.

We chose the spot near where the sassafras up and died last year. Hopefully the same thing doesn’t happen with the plum.