On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, I gathered Harvey’s ashes, my shovels, and a hoe, stopped at the garden shop where I had previously purchased an overcup oak sapling, then drove to the lake house to meet my daughters, their husbands, and my granddaughter. We would plant this tree at the lake using his ashes,
I should back up a bit and tell you about the ashes. I had Harvey cremated immediately after his death. I should have made all the arrangements beforehand, but I didn’t, so my daughters and I sat in the funeral home and made specific decisions about cremation the day after he passed away. When the ashes were ready, I brought them home. My father crafted a beautiful wooden box to hold them, and they sat in a closet for these past four years because I couldn’t think of a fitting location in which to scatter them. We did open the box when one of my daughters found someone who created jewelry with a scant amount of the ashes. We three wear our rings every day. Here is their website.
I should back up a bit and tell you about the nursery, Hanna’s Garden Shop, It’s located very near the first site of Double Oak Family Medicine. I can’t recall what happened first, but either the family came to see us as patients, or we visited Hanna’s for shrubbery for our new house in 1992. In any event, the relationship continued for the duration of the existence of the medical practice. We continued to see both of the parents and their three children and shop at their nursery. When the father passed away, the grown children inherited the shop. When I visited the garden shop to look for the oak tree that I wanted, I got to chat with one of the sons who was there and reminded him of our families’ long association and to tell him of my plans for the tree.
I should back up a bit and tell you about the tree I chose. For some reason, and I don’t know why, but many years ago, Harvey began collecting acorns from a variety of oak called overcup. There must have been one in the neighborhood. Maybe the owner of Hanna’s Garden Shop told him about this species with its acorn cup that almost completely encases the nut within. Here is a link to a photo. But one day I threw away his collection of overcup acorns which were in a plastic baggie on our desk. My title of “Queen of Cull” gets me in trouble occasionally, and this was one of those times.
I should back up a bit and tell you why I chose my new lake house as the site to plant the overcup oak sapling. The lake house may seem like an odd location since I purchased it long after Harvey passed away. He really would have loved this place though. He grew up going to his grandparents’ place on the lake and would recount stories of swimming, and skiing, and fishing during his summers there, and he always longed for a similar experience for our daughters. We just never got around to it.
So I decided that we would plant an overcup oak at the lake, using most of Harvey’s ashes to mix with the soil. I kept about a third to stay with me in my home. Harvey’s overcup oak is with us now whenever we visit the lake, celebrating holidays and birthdays, or just quietly sitting on the porch watching the days unfold. As his tree grows, I will envision its branches as spreading protection over us.