For decades, it was a ritual for many of the families whose loved ones were interred at Evergreen Cemetery to regularly tend their lots and the lots of the departed without similar volunteer “caretakers.”
Such was the case with the family of now Dr. Thomas H. Fay, whose great-grandfather, James Tilatha Thomas, had founded the Cemetery back in 1856. One weekend, while attending to their family lot, a then 9-year old Tom was told by his father to pull a small oak seedling (or “weed” as it was referred to) from the ground. Young Tom implored his father to save it, saying it was the same height as he. He bargained, “If you let it grow, I will take care of it… and I will grow with it.” Now, nearly 80 years later, Dr. Fay remarks, “Of course we both kept growing, but it has surpassed me!”
Dr. Fay with his tree
Tom’s Tree Today