A small group of neighbors gathered on Thursday to say goodbye to a 40-year-old gum tree whose roots have damaged the sidewalk below.
The gum tree, standing tall at 23rd Ave NW and NW 83rd St, will soon be cut down and removed to make the sidewalk more accessible. The gum’s neighbors held a ceremony to say goodbye, with bagpipes, a poem, and words from the woman who planted it so many years ago.
Here’s the poem from a neighbor named Tim, whose house faces the gum tree.
“Oh beautiful tree. Our tallest neighbor and confidant, we’ve whispered secrets and settled arguments under your branches. You’ve watched over countless babies and strollers, dog walkers, lovers holding hands. Kissing, laughter, hatred, all that’s humanly possible, yet you remain steady, rooted in place.
It’s not without irony, our sweet gum, you with your star-shaped leaves, green in summer, then yellow, then organe, into red, and finally turning purple, close to Christmas, that it’s your roots that have become your undoing.
Our need for progress, a level human walking surface have outstripped your corky bark, your fast-growing habits, how you provide shelter for crow funerals and squirrel families, how I’ll miss cursing and raking your late autumn leaves, how we miss someone right now that we’ve been thinking of, how times change, and we have to accept it.
Oh beautiful tree, your roots have connected us for two generations before most of our children got degrees or jobs or much of anything that now feels important, pointing out that significance is temporal, in the moment, forever changing and ultimately hopeful, like leaves we have to rake up before spring.”
Thanks to Jacque for sharing the news and photos in the My Ballard Group