Our Tree

It was the morning after the big blizzard of January 2021, a massive winter storm that shut down the entirety of Switzerland, when I felt something had changed. I sensed it the moment I walked into the living room. Something was off, but I couldn’t immediately put my finger on it. I stood there for a few moments before I realized it was the light in the room. It was brighter. And then it hit me: it was because our tree, the big beautiful tree right outside our front window, was gone.

I went to the window and saw it’s massive branches hanging downward, wood sticking up at odd angles like broken limbs. The tree had cracked in half from the weight of all the snow.

⁣⁣Our tree wasn’t the only casualty. Zurich’s streets were littered with broken branches. I got an email from my school, warning me not to walk under any trees due to the heavy snowfall. The park next to us was closed for nearly a month. All in all, the storm felled 1.3 million cubic meters of trees throughout Switzerland.⁣⁣⁣

⁣A week after the storm, a couple of men from the city showed up to saw off the broken branches, the parts of the tree that had splintered and would be dangerous if left hanging on. And I thought that was that. But then, one afternoon, without any warning, they came back to cut her down completely. All the way to the trunk. I heard the fall, and couldn’t believe it when I looked out the window.

It felt wrong for her to go like that, so quickly and unexpectedly, and just so damn unceremoniously. For something so grand and so old to simply cease to exist. It made me really sad. I didn’t know I needed to say goodbye. ⁣⁣⁣

⁣⁣A few days later, someone in our building placed a bouquet of bright pink flowers on her trunk. I was so grateful for this small gesture. An acknowledgment, from our little community, that the loss didn’t go unnoticed after all.

She was a good tree. I especially loved her in the spring, when the birds returned from winter break with their happy morning chatter. But she was beautiful in every season. ⁣⁣⁣I never knew her exact species, but she seemed like the type that belonged in the Mediterranean. Somewhere warm, someplace breezy and balmy. I think she was a transplant, like us. She was a good tree.