"One September day,
the perfect blue sky exploded.
Under the blackened remains,
the tree lay crushed and burned.
Workers dug through the wreckage
and discovered unexpected green."
Before that catastrophic September day we now call 9/11, a small tree grew for thirty years in its place near the tall steel buildings, marking the change of seasons without much attention from passers-by. When the planes hit and the towers fell, the tree lay crushed and buried until someone found it. In the aftermath, it was replanted elsewhere. It did not flourish for years. Its gnarled branches became home to birds, and the tree began to grow once more. It took ten years.
Finally, it was returned to its former home, and an entirely different landscape. Today, visitors stop and cry for those lives lost; and they pay attention to the beautiful tree for the first time.
"Fingers traced the timeline.
Warm palms pressed the old wound,
the bark joining the past to the present."
Marcie Colleen's book is based on a real tree that stands tall today where the twin towers once stood. Her admiration for its survival is evident in the calm, elegant way she chooses to tell its story. Aaron Becker's New York setting and stunning illustrations tell the tree's story with sun-filled images and incredible detail; they also tell another story of a family who loved that tree before the collapse, and continue to love it after its return. There it remains a symbol of hope for all visitors.
A closing note about the tree offers further information, and is accompanied by notes from both author and artist. On this 20th anniversary since the towers fell, Survivor Tree offers understanding for the resilience that is part of all healing.
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