There’s two trees in front of our house. The big linden tree is city-owned, and was a little sapling when we moved into the house in 1988. When we had some professional landscaping done, a small tree — I’m told that it was a bean plant grafted onto a tree trunk — was put in to shade the kitchen window.

The heavy rain filled the leaves of the tree. The weight pulled the tree over. In the pouring rain, we managed to separate the broken branches from the trunk, pulling it to the side. The next day, we had a handyman with a chain saw cut the branches down so we could move them.

We debated what to do with a five foot tree trunk. Letting nature take its course, it sprouted a few days later. The tree is growing back.