I walked over to the cemetery around 8pm this evening. Daff Moon app had notified me of "golden hour," and it looked to be good conditions to capture sunbeams. But what I found when I walked to the center of the cemetery brought tears to my eyes.
My favorite cemetery tree was gone.
I cautiously approached the pile of wood chips and dirt that marked where the tree once stood. Maybe I thought I was simply imagining the tree's absence. Maybe I thought the tree would come into focus as I drew nearer. Whatever I thought, I was wrong. The tree was indeed gone. It had been here before I moved to this town in 2001. So, while I had been actively photographing it for the past five to ten years, it had been at least a peripheral part of my life for just over 20 years.
But now it is gone. No notice; no ceremony. I went down to my knees. I pushed my outstretched hands into the tree's shredded remains. "I'll miss you," I said as a slight breeze stirred, "you didn't deserve this end."
Image 1 (above): A collage of nine tree photos, arranged in a 3x3 matrix, and spanning from June 2020 through April 2024.
Image 2 (below): Photo of a pile of wood chips and loose soil where the tree used to be. Caption reads, "RIP Cemetery Tree. (? - June 2024)."
