{"id":33422,"date":"2021-04-17T00:01:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-17T07:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=33422"},"modified":"2026-06-06T12:49:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T12:49:31","slug":"my-husband-is-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/my-husband-is-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"My Husband Is Gone. But the Tree Trimmers Showed Up as Promised."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"my<\/a>
Getting ready to remove a carefully chosen limb from our cypress tree. Photos by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My husband is gone. Does that mean that the fun projects we’d been planning for months and months will be forgotten?<\/p>\n

Will our cypress tree go untrimmed? Will the patio garden lie fallow and disorderly? Will the brick stairs in the back yard keep on crumbling and tumbling down the hill?<\/p>\n

Ever since our remodel drew to a close last year, I’ve been itching to get our trees trimmed. Especially that one cypress branch — the one that blocks the view of the San Francisco Bay from our dining room table.<\/p>\n

Side by Side and Elbow to Elbow<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Even without the trees trimmed, the view from our dining room was so compelling that Jon and I eventually fell into the habit of having breakfast and lunch sitting elbow to elbow on the same side of the table — the side with the view.<\/p>\n

\"my-husband-is-gone-but-the-cypress-tree-still-needs<\/a>
Before:<\/strong> A clump of foliage on our cypress tree blocked our view of he San Francisco Bay from our dining room table. The entire limb was removed. The cypress behind it was trimmed a bit as well.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

(At dinnertime Jon and I sat across from each other — a nod to formality, but also to the fact that the sun had set and our lovely, comforting view had gone dark.)<\/p>\n

But now it was just me sitting at the breakfast table. And that clumpy cypress branch still blocked the best part of the view.<\/p>\n

The DMV and the IRS<\/strong><\/h5>\n

I don’t feel like doing much these days. Not the paperwork at the bank, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the DMV. Not the mailing of the death certificates.<\/p>\n

But last week I did feel like getting those trees trimmed.<\/p>\n

\"monterey-cypress-with-view\"<\/a>
After:<\/strong> That pesky clump of foliage removed, a fogged-in bay revealed itself.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I called the tree trimmers. They came. They talked. They listened.\u00a0They trimmed the trees exactly the way I wanted them: two Monterey cypresses, one goofy, limby oak tree, and a passel of polite, but lusty, branches hanging over our neighbor’s fence and into our yard.<\/p>\n

They let me take their pictures.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the trees were everything I’d hoped they’d be.<\/p>\n

A Mossy Limb<\/strong><\/h5>\n

And now, from time to time as I move through the day, one of the mossy branches of our cypress tree will catch my eye and hold my my attention. And for a minute I can forget that my husband is gone. For a minute, life feels like life.<\/p>\n

That’s how beautiful a tree can be.<\/p>\n

More about that remodel at “Our Remodel Has Kept Us Company — We’ll Miss the Carpenters, the Electricians and the Pile Drivers.”<\/a>\u00a0 Also, “Window Treatment Sticker Shock.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n