The tree was lying on its side when I got to it.

It was a nice-looking pine tree, fluffy and full and as tall as me. The strong winds coupled with some unstable footing had caused it to fall over. This seemed too sad to simply walk by. I went over to the tree and, with a little effort, got it standing upright again. It looked much happier. I finished my walk, feeling I had done my part.

The next day, it was lying on its side again.

I examined it more closely. It had been relying on the rotting remains of another fallen pine to stand upright and the old log had finally given way, taking the young pine with it. I set my hiking poles down and hauled a couple of large rocks lying nearby over to the base of the pine, propping it back up.

The next day, it had fallen over again. This was going to be a bigger project than I expected. I hauled a lot of rocks over and piled them at the base of the young tree. “There! That should hold you.” That night, as I sat on the patio, I noticed how the wind was picking up. “I bet my tree has fallen again,” I thought.

I was right.

So, on the fourth day, I found another downed log, similar to the one my tree had been relying on, but not as rotten, and hauled it over. I jammed one end into the soil and propped the other end against the narrow tree trunk. A family of bikers nearby watched me curiously, as I piled rocks on top of the log to further secure it.

“Just helping this little tree!” I explained. They smiled, assuming I was crazy, I’m sure.

Yesterday, I returned to the tree. It was standing upright. “Hurray!” I said aloud. At that moment, I remembered my husband, Peter, and I had decided to move.

So far, this decision has resulted in little action on our part. But yesterday Peter ordered a moving van, so presumably things will become very real very soon.

We have lots of good reasons to move.

My parents and my sister and most of my relatives live in the Midwest, as does most of Peter’s family. Particularly during the pandemic, we realized how much we missed family, how many occasions we had missed, and how quickly time passes.

And so, we have decided to make the move and we are both filled with mixed feelings because it is hard to leave a place, no matter how many reasons there are to be somewhere else.

Standing in front of this little tree, hoping it would now become a huge, towering pine, I felt a small pang because I would never know. That is the hardest thing about moving. I will never know what I will miss, not living here.

But I was never going to know.

This tree may outlive me by hundreds of years, or it may perish by the end of the summer. I will never know this, nor will I know what any path I have not taken might hold.

Instead, I imagine, because that is all I can do to keep myself upright. I imagine spending my mother’s next birthday with her and I imagine going to the theater with my oldest friend and I imagine seeing my nephew graduate.

And, in the back of my mind, I imagine this tree standing tall for hundreds of years after I am dead, on stable footing because of me.

Till next time,

Carrie

Carrie Classon’s memoir is called, “Blue Yarn.” Learn more at CarrieClasson.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

It’s amazing that anyone shares a bed.

I know there are plenty of married and cohabiting couples who have separate beds, or even separate bedrooms, and I can see the logic in avoiding the snoring, the thrashing, the different sleep schedules, and the need to negotiate the complicated issue of bedding.

But since marrying and moving into Peter’s house, we have shared a bed, and it is not a large one. So far, we have negotiated a peaceful settlement. This is because Peter has let me have my way.

There were a lot of improvements needed to the bed when I moved in with Peter.

First of all, he had sheets he described as “microfiber.” I don’t know what these tiny fibers were, but the only fiber I was interested in having in my sheets was cotton.

I don’t think (as Peter implies) this makes me a snob. I am not one of those who requires an absurdly high thread count. It was my wise mother who pointed out that a lower thread count makes for a cozier feeling sheet -- provided, of course, that it is washed in unscented laundry soap and dried outside on the line.

I once read a story where a woman was ironing her pillowcases. This activity was proof that she was mentally unstable. I did not find the story convincing. I know my mother is of sound mind, and she’ll tell you that a pillowcase is a lot nicer after it’s been touched up by a hot iron.

Then there was the matter of blankets. Fortunately, we both like a cooler room at night, thus avoiding most of the disputes that happen between couples in the winter months. But Peter’s solution was to toss something on top of the bed that was the size, weight and color of a dead seal. That was obviously not going to work.

Once under the fleshy green leviathan, I could hardly breathe, and any kind of temperature adjustment was impossible.

“What if I get too hot?” I asked Peter.

“You stick a foot out.”

“I stick a foot out of the bed?”

“Yeah.”

“How does that help anything?”

“It cools you down.”

“It cools down one foot! Now I’m still hot but have a cold foot!”

We replaced the dead sea mammal with several blankets that could be used as needed, and I thought we had reached a nice resolution to the whole bedding issue until we visited Europe. There I saw they had one pillow that stretched across the bed that both sleepers could share.

“Ooh! I want one of those,” I thought.

But then Peter decided he wanted a peculiar pillow that supported his neck but not his head and looked exactly like a giant upholstered hotdog. I did not. So the lovely European-style pillow idea was scrapped.

And still the nocturnal negotiations continue. Peter (unbeknownst to him, he claims) will migrate over onto my side, forcing me to cling to the edge of the bed to keep from falling out. This wakes me up just enough so I can nudge him. He will, with considerable grumbling, roll back over to his side, at which time I hastily grab whatever territory he has relinquished. It’s a nightly challenge in a small bed.

But it’s worth it.

Because, as I move into the warmth that he has left behind, I’m reminded every night that he is there beside me, disturbing my sleep and stealing my covers. It’s a nightly reassurance that he is near.

Till next time,

Carrie

Carrie Classon’s memoir is called, “Blue Yarn.” Learn more at CarrieClasson.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

March is winding down and my sister-in-law, Lori, is going with it.

There is too much food and too many flowers because that is what we do when someone is dying, when we don’t know what else to do as, gradually, the unthinkable becomes accepted and even ordinary. We make more food and bring more flowers. But there is too little time. There is always too little time.

Lori is spending most of the time she has left sleeping, which means she is not in pain but also that no one can talk with her and we miss her already, while she is here among us.

There are circles of grief, as I’ve heard it explained. Her husband, Robert, is at the center, and one ring out are her children and my husband, her brother. I am a bit further out in orbit, in Lori’s solar system of sorrow, missing her ready laugh and irreverent observations.

“Take a brownie, if you want one,” her son, Bobby, tells me. I haven’t had a brownie in ages, and so I do.

There are casseroles in the freezer and desserts on the counter. Lori’s daughter has made a mix tape of Lori’s favorite music that is playing. A group of women friends have made a collage with Lori’s photo at the center, made to look as if she is a giant purple butterfly.

And, because it is March, there are vases of tulips and crocuses on every level surface. Pink and yellow blooms are everywhere, and everyone is waiting and watching and trying to be helpful. There is so much to do. There is so little to be done.

I remember when I first met Lori. We were not the best of friends. She was a strong woman with fierce opinions, some of which I did not share.

But after her illness, we grew close. The circumstances were unusual. We spent many hours talking about things that people may not get a chance to talk about -- unless they happen to be alone together during a pandemic and dying. I learned to love her seemingly bottomless capacity for empathy and her adventurous spirit. I knew, almost from the beginning of the pandemic, that I was experiencing something special. I felt genuinely blessed.

The last time I spoke with Lori, she was so tired. I told her we had just come by to tell her how much we loved her. She said, very softly, “I’m going to haunt you, you know.”

“I hope so,” I told her.

She smiled and closed her eyes. And it’s true, I do.

Lori rode motorcycles and flew planes and even jumped out of one once. She talked to strangers at every opportunity. She was open to new ideas and changing her mind and always giving people the benefit of the doubt. I would be happy to be haunted by her curiosity and her caring and her ribald humor and her insatiable thirst for new experiences and new insights.

And, if such a thing were possible, I would love to have her looking over my shoulder, prodding me. “Can’t you be a little braver, a little more honest, a little less proper? What have you got to lose?”

What have I got to lose?

Right now, losing Lori seems like a terrible loss.

I had the privilege to be with Lori as she died peacefully in her sleep on the first day of spring. And while, at this writing, I don’t know how March will end, I know my sister-in-law, Lori, went out like a lion.

Till next time,

Carrie

Carrie Classon’s memoir is called, “Blue Yarn.” Learn more at CarrieClasson.com.

DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION