There are several miracles related to the fire. One is an apple tree at the stables. It’s about five feet tall, just a small thing. But it produces tiny apples every season. Rumor has it that it was planted by a grieved person who lost a beloved horse. What better gesture than to plant an apple tree.
So we all had a big question in our minds after the fire, “What happened to the apple tree? Was it destroyed?”
It was at least a week before we were allowed to return to the stables. One of the first things we checked was the tree. It didn’t look very good. Most of its branches were scorched black. No signs of life were visible. A tractor had burned not ten feet away and the huge barn that burned down was only about 30 or 40 feet away. It looked like we had lost the tree.
But as the days passed we saw green leaves emerging at the tips of the few twigs that hadn’t been scorched. Not only that, as more days passed we saw the ever hopeful blossoms of spring emerging (never mind that this is November).
It took yet another week to get water restored to the stalls. The PVC pipes had all melted. But with the return of water I started watering the tree whenever I had a chance. And the leaves and blossoms continued to grow and thrive.
Our apple tree survived.
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