By Chris Barber
Contributing Writer

Just one year ago on Sept. 19, the majestic and Champion Penn Oak at London Grove Friends Meeting came crashing to the ground.

A victim of old age and rotting roots, the most recent estimates have placed its age at 374 years –during a time period when many of the nation’s first settlers were arriving in America.

On that sunny, late summer day last year, the kindergarten and preschool kids at the meetinghouse were out playing. At the first cracking sound, they were shepherded back inside for their safety.

Minutes later, as the children looked out, the beloved tree, around which they and many of their parents had played, fell to the ground, a sprawling pile of roots, leaves and branches, never to be upright again.

Kindergarten Chairman Deni-Lyn Lane reported that some of them cried.

As a reporter, I got the call and drove out Street Road as fast as I could. As I arrived at the meetinghouse parking lot, I saw it.

My heart sank.

Both of my children and many of their friends are alumni of that kindergarten.

“That tree must be memorialized,” I thought.

My thoughts ran to gathering momentums – leaves, sticks, piece of bark. But that didn’t make all that much sense.

Then I saw a branch about 2 inches thick, and it gave me an idea: Why not ask for a branch, cut it in discs and fashion them in pendants for the kindergarteners present that day?

Lucky for me, I was granted permission.

The next step was not so easy, because the only handsaw I had was a clunky one I inherited from my father 40 years ago. It was rusted. Cutting discs would be impossible for me.

So, I took the branch to my friends Fran and Andrea Durynski at CompuSign in Toughkenamon. Luckily, Fran told me he had three powersaws.

“Piece of cake,” he said.

He went to work and cut 80 half-inch discs.

Amazingly, that’s when we observed that the old tree had so much integrity and strength—even in its death, the branches hung on to the bark. The interior wood on those discs would be elegantly framed.

From there, Fran took the ball and ran with it.

He and his assistant Efren sanded them, lacquered them and installed the small pins for attaching to necklaces.

Then Andrea and I searched the Internet for an appropriate logo to print on those discs.

Following our suggestion, Fran, with his experience, tools and skill then applied that logo to all 80 of them.

I added hooks, lanyards and a short, written memorial statement to all those discs and sought the chance to present them.

That day came, appropriately, on Arbor Day, April 25.

The kids filed out and sat on the ground. They all participated by singing along to songs about trees and some poetry.

Then, Fran, Andrea, Deni-lyn and I presented the pendants to students and staff – almost like graduation diplomas – one at a time.

The kids were very respectful and eager to receive the pendants.

What struck me was their responses to what had just been placed around their necks: There seemed to be little interest in the honor of the tree, but a fascination with the pendants themselves. Many of the children ran their hands over them and commented that they were surprised at the smoothness.

Apparently, one of their most vivid memories of the tree was the roughness of the bark as they rubbed against it.

I still wear my pendant often, and I sent one each to my daughters (alums of London Grove).

I don’t think the memories of that tree and the events it witnessed will ever be forgotten.

And the tree’s nearby children, grown from its acorns, will always stand in honor of their late parent.