I think I used to live next door to her. We had an enormous sugar maple in the front yard, the tallest tree for blocks around. It was also the first to turn color in the fall, a magnificent bright magenta. I could see it from a quarter a mile away.

Because it was the first to turn, it was also the first to drop its leaves, and leave its hot pink evidence all over the street, especially in my elderly next door neighbor’s yard, and she did NOT appreciate it. Every time I saw her, she ordered me to cut it down, and I would tell her gently that I would never cut down that incredible tree.

She never tried to sue me, though.

It outlived her. The tree won.