Karen
I was going through chemo. I went under that tree when I was feeling ill, it was just so peaceful.
It was a silver birch, and they tendril all the way to the ground. I sat under there – it was like a treehouse on the ground. It was therapeutic. It was quiet, down the back yard. It was quite a special memory.
The Council came round and said ‘we’ve got to take your tree’. And they said, ‘Gosh, it’s a healthy tree, it’s a pity we have to take it down’. They said, ‘we’re going to give you these two wee trees in its place’.
I just burst into tears, and they weren’t expecting that.
I said, ‘God, I want to hug my tree goodbye. Just don’t let them come until I’ve hugged that tree’. I said ‘I love you. I’ll see you in heaven’. I was chatting away to the tree. I stepped back from it, then they came up. They gave me that time with my tree, I really believe that.
So I came back a few hours later, and the bareness of my backyard, with this huge tree gone. It’s just never looked the same.
I’m a massive lover of nature. It’s so important to me. I got through my cancer – it was 22 years ago now.