The Pear Tree

The year is 1999, I am 7 years old and I remember going to my great grandparents house and playing out in the backyard with my older brother and sister. The warmth of the sun peeking through the tree branches. Every time we went to visit these sweet elderly couple who have been together for as long as I can remember. I always admired the pear tree that stood directly in the middle of their backyard. We would have to be careful, because the pears would fall out of their tree and into the yard. I would always pick them up and throw them up and hit them with a baseball bat. My brother would pitch one to me and I would hit the pear as hard as I could making it shatter into a million pieces. My sister would throw them against the pear tree. We were just a couple of kids having some fun. My great grandmother, her name was Juanita, she always had the most gentle voice and touch. She was indeed an angel in human form. She called us in the house to eat Sunday lunch like we did every Sunday. After all my great grandfather, his name was Jake, he was the pastor of the church that I grew up in. So my grandma, great grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, etc. would all meet at my great grandparents house and eat after a great service. My great grandmother had seen that I was so intrigued by this pear tree. "Would you like to know the story?" she asked me. "What story ma?" I asked. She looked out of her back window which showed the tree so perfectly. "About the pear tree." she said. I had no idea there was a story that went with this tree, but she really had my attention on this one. "Yes ma'am." I said. As we made our plates of the delicious home cooked meals, and sat down at the table that fit our whole family, my great grandpa or as I called him Pa started to pray. We all grabbed hands and bowed our heads as he blessed our food. After we finished our delicious food my great grandmother sat in her recliner next to my Pa like they did every single day. She called me over and sat me in her lap and began to tell me the story of the pear tree. "I met your Pa back in the early 1940's. When we saw each other I knew he was the one. Your Pa had just come home from World War II a long hard fight. I was out with my friends and then he came along. We spent every lasting day together from then on out and that's around the time we got married and I got pregnant with your grandma. We decided to plant our roots here in this very house. There were no neighbors like we have now it was just an empty field with so much potential. As I was out in that very backyard you babies play in, I was out back hanging laundry on the clothesline to dry. I couldn't help but think our backyard was just missing some beautiful flowers or trees. So your Pa and I went down to the local farmers market to buy some goods to stock up on. I'm not sure what it was but the pears seemed so beautiful to me. The color, the shape, even the word she giggled. We decided to grab a few for our center dish, as we got back home I began to wash all vegetables and fruits that we had just purchased. I decided then that I wanted my own pear tree. Your Pa and I split the pear in half, my it was so delicious she said. Then after we grabbed the seed, your Pa dug a hole and I planted it. Over the years it has grown into a beautiful pear tree and always blooms when in season. It overjoys me to see you children out playing around it and climbing it like my children used to do." she smiled as she rubbed and patted my arm. That story just made me fill all warm inside. There was so much love in this house and I truly believed at that very moment love helped grow that amazing pear tree. A few years later in 2003 my great grandfather would pass away leaving my great grandmother with a broken heart and later to pass away in 2009. The house has gone vacant, it breaks my heart to see there house wither away and I only wish that I could save it. But I know without a doubt they are together again rejoicing. Not a day goes by that I don't remember that beautiful story about my two favorite people and their beautiful pear tree that still stands to this day.