Fallen Family

Fall we did. Not Sherry, and not I, but another Branch — the one in front of our house.

The vultures quickly gathered. Before I pulled on my shoes to go out, three different neighbors were on the scene. “We saw it happen,” they said. What kind of world do we live in, where people watch the violence but do not intervene? Streets are no longer safe for timber, it seems.

One neighbor claimed the remains for cremation. Another offered a small chainsaw. Yet another helped clear the carcass out of the street, lest my dear Branch be dishonored by the approach of oblivious vehicles.

Neighbors helping neighbors. Death brings us together.