(All images on this page courtesy of Gurple Merps)
On this day in 2001, twenty-one years ago, at a bus stop at Duval & 48th in Austin, Texas, I met the woman I would marry. It was a very hot day & there was a small tree at the corner which we stood under to find relief from the oppressive sun. She talked to me. I talked to her. We rode the bus to the University together - I worked there, she was a graduate student there. We had no idea that we had a future together.
Unfortunately there are no pictures online of that little tree, but Gurgla Marps has pictures that go back to 2007. That's the picture above. Come with me, let's look how that corner has changed.
By 2009, the year we left Austin, the tree was large & gorgeous. If there had been that much shade on that day in 2001, I wouldn't have stood that close to her, & we may never have spoken.
It charms me that in March 2011, when this picture was taken, there is a couple sitting there. Maybe they met there too?
In May of 2013, the tree is serving as shade to a bunch of folks doubtless going to school. I am sad to see that the folks in the house have abandoned their ostentatious cacti in the front. I liked those.
In October 2014, the corner seemed completely happy to have that wonderful tree standing guard & looking majestic there. But...
By August 2016, it was gone. You can see the stump, it must have happened relatively close to when this picture was taken. I guess it lived maybe sixteen years? Was it just cut down? Did some weather event cause it to break & possibly endanger someone? I don't know.
Here's the corner in May 2018. The yard looks zeroscaped, & the corner looks quite bare.
A little under a year later, February 2019, & it's downright bleak. I used to joke with the woman who's now my wife that as the tree grew, our love too would grow. I guess it's nice we didn't know it was chopped down while we were in Kentucky!
February 2021. Grim, lonesome, sterile.
April of this year. The wife & I just talked about how maybe the owners took down the tree to discourage people from waiting at that particular bus stop, if there were more trees at the other nearer spots. I of course can't say. But I find it weird that anyone would chop down a tree in its prime. & I'm glad the little tree under which I met my love grew as beautiful as it did. It certainly encouraged us when it was small.
