About Kelley & Kelley

Off the top of my head

July 29th, 2025

We lost a friend last night. Fierce winds, lights flickered out at 9:30 p.m. In the morning, surveying damage, not much but twigs and small branches litter the ground. Until I rounded the corner of the greenhouse. Our venerable, old boxelder tree couldn’t hang on any longer, toppling toward the greenhouse, blocking the way. Luckily no damage, save for the loss of that grateful canopy. And it was old great uncle Rod, one of the founders of Kelley and Kelley, remembers climbing on its broad, overhanging branches when he was a lad in the early 1900s. That would make boxelder well over 150 years old. And huge – the circumference of the downed logs measured 13 feet. The tree had suffered major limb losses over the years, always saddening, but I somehow was not prepared for the sadness that came with losing the whole thing. One never is. That canopy, even diminished, provided a refuge – for man and beast. Now, hot sky in it place. A loss. One more rhythm connecting generations lost. So, a spiritual as well as a physical losts. We’ve retained the two massive pieces of trunk, placing them next to the remaining stump. We can still clamber on that old tree – if we wanted to.

We lost a friend last night and, like all friends, a one-of-a kind and irreplaceable friend.