Playing with perspective

A Story by Antonia Perdu

From a Son's Point of View. A story from his mother about her favorite tree.

My mother always talks of trees. They have a great importance in her life I believe to be spiritual. There is one in which she describes it as being "home and adventure." The great weeping willow of Irvington was a grand natural structure. A generous shade-giver and a staple in her world. She would describe it in phrases like "Meet me at the Weeping Willow," among her peers. This tree included Boo Radley hiding places, birds abodes, and rough bark. Every touch was love. They used to climb very high, observing new sights along with new bugs. They used to collect the fallen willow branches, strip them of the leaves and use the leaves as make believe food that accompanied messy mud-pies. The remaining branch which now resembled a whip was used solely to hear the "woshing" sound as it cut through the air. There was nothing like the breezy sound of that particular tree while particles of the sun shone down on her youth. This tree was and still is the foundation and an important piece of my mother's imagination. My mother and her best friends used to play 'The Lion King' in it. She always says "I used to climb king's trees in Irvington." Before she took me to it's resting place, she told me that this tree that had been a place for safe mind travels became a physical danger in a matter of seconds. She had been looking out a kitchen window of a friend's house on a rainy day, well in rolled some thunder and she counted to wait to see how many miles away it was. "One!" The lighting struck of all things, her favorite tree. The contact made the tree's roots lift up and break the concrete and water pipes surrounding it. It destroyed two homes fences taking the 'Banana Boat' (Mr. Herb's yellow Cadillac) with it. She explains that it was exciting, sad, and life changing. That area was never the same. She took me to visit where they had cut it at the base and said "That's incredible, this tree had to have been here before Irvington was Irvington! I wish I knew it's stories." That was the first time she considered the age of that tree and the first time I considered my mother ageless.