The tree was here when the woman first moved into the house. She knew it was planted far too close to the house. No one in their right mind plants an Oak tree less than ten feet away from the front of a home. But it was already several years old and a good size; she didn't think this would be her forever home - so she left the tree alone.
It continued to grow as trees are want to do just as her children did, and sometimes she worried about the limbs during the fierce summer storms. All of the her neighbors have Maple trees and they would lose branches during winds storms, some even split in half. But not the Oak. Not during the Labor Day micro-burst, nor even during the April ice-storm did the Oak lose anything. Only twice in over 20 years did it ever lose a limb - once during a wind storm a large low branch came down and the neighbor had to help cut it off and the second time when the woman paid to have it trimmed.
The woman's next door neighbors hate the tree. They hate the leaves and acorns. They are ignorant and therefore she doesn't care. She paid to have the Oak trimmed so it wouldn't touch their house. If they can't appreciate the generous shade this tree provides than they are stupid. It is a magnificent specimen filtering sunlight, leaves wafting in the breeze. It gives shelter to woodpeckers and squirrels alike. And the noise it makes in a storm is like none the woman has ever heard before.
The woman has watched her neighbors cut down their beautiful Maple trees and cringed as they did so. Glad she is that her handsome Oak is healthy and stands as a sentinel beside her home. Inside her fence.
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