Wednesday, May 16, 2012

A Guy Spent 55 Years Protecting New England's Tallest Elm Tree. When They Both Died, He Was Buried in a Coffin Made from Its Wood.


In 1956, a logging company owner named Frank Knight in Portland, Maine decided to protect an elm tree. At 110 feet tall, it was the tallest elm in New England. And Frank made it his life's mission to keep the tree alive. He made sure it wasn't cut down for lumber, and he had workers from his company prune it regularly and treat it with pesticides, so it would stay healthy. After nearly 55 years of Frank caring for it, the tree died of Dutch elm disease two years ago. It was the 14th time the tree had the disease, and the first time that Frank couldn't get it to pull through. On Monday, Frank died at 103 years old. And he'll be buried in a coffin made out of wood from the tree. His friends secretly took some of the wood from the tree when it was cut down, so they could pay tribute to Frank for spending more than half his life as its volunteer caretaker.

This is a very touching story. I just wish that more of these types of stories were available. It's comforting to know that there are people out there that care so much for another living thing. If you know of someone like that, email me the story and I'll get it posted! Sent your stories to wolfman943@gmail.com.

Above is a picture of Frank by HIS tree.

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