mallet's Blog

When our sweet Emma Jo was still with us, our walks were characterized by her lagging behind to smell one more tree... and one more after that. So our tribute to our old girl was to plant an Emma tree today. Karen came with me this morning when I rode my favorite thoroughbred racehorse up in Jackson, Wisconsin. On the way back to Milwaukee, we drove past a nursery. We stopped and purchased our Emma tree, a flame maple. Today was a perfect day to plant a tree. It was a cool, rainy, November, Wisconsin day. We brought our other old girl, Kubla, outside. I dug a 12" hole. Then, Karen and I carefully put our new maple in the ground. We took Emma's ashes and sprinkled them all around the base of our tree. We laughed momentarily when we put the hose on our new tree. You see, Emma hated to be wet. When she was younger, we would spell the word B.A.T.H. If she heard it, she would cower beneath the nearest piece of furniture. But we made up for it when we took Kubla for her evening walk much later in the day. Karen poured a sip of red wine on the roots of the Emma tree. Emma hated to be wet, but she loved red wine. I still remember a night many years ago when Karen was out of town and Emma was staying with me in my bachelor flat. I was watching college basketball and sitting in my leather sling chair close to the floor. I had a glass of red wine sitting on the floor next to me. I looked over at some point and noticed it was empty. I filled it again. Only a few minutes of the game had elapsed before it was empty again. This went on for awhile. At some point, I looked over and noticed that Emma's white face was red around the edges. She had been helping herself to my wine and she liked it! She slept really well that night. That will be just one of the Emma memories I'll enjoy whenever I look at our flame maple Emma tree planted here in Wisconsin.