Kuttu’s tree
As Kuttu’s birthday approaches, I’ve been under a lot of self-imposed stress. One of my agenda items was to get a memorial tree for him, and an engraved memorial stone to go with the tree. One day last month, I decided to drive by the nursery and pick up a young peach tree and get started on my plans. I had to open the top of the car to load it in.
Seeing the tree hanging out in the passenger side reminded me painfully of Kuttu, who loved car rides. This was his last car ride, in Nov of last year. He was slowing down, and I knew even then that it would be the last fun ride we would take.
The day after we planted the tree, a family of deer snacked mercilessly on its leaves. I was heartbroken. But then I saw the baby deer, and I realized that nature goes on. I wouldn’t have wanted those babies to starve. The next day, I set about installing a mesh on 8′ stakes, but it didn’t look sturdy enough. I recounted this story to my neighbor. That night, I came home from dinner to find my neighbor installing a proper deer fence around the tree!
Over the next three weeks I worked on finalizing the stone & engraving text for Kuttu’s memorial stone. Just two days ago, I confirmed my stone order. Rather symbolically, as I walked Pixel that day, butterflies flitted around us and flew away. And then, this morning, like a little gift, we saw blooms on Kuttu’s tree.
Everyone who knows me knows that I’m very far from being religious or immersed in the supernatural, but it did feel like a sign from little Kuttu that all was well. Yes, I know that fall blooms are a sign of summer stress, and butterflies are a sign that it is butterfly season, but all that aside, it just felt good.
