My grandfather Henry was killed in an auto
accident when I was 5. My only memories of him were that he used to save pennies in his empty snuff cans for me and when he came north to visit he would bring silver-leaf maple trees in coffee cans for planting at our house and at my maternal great-grandmother's.
When my husband and I finally were able to buy our own house there were silver-leaf maples already growing on the property.
No one had planted them there as no one had ever lived on this piece of property before. Now we give the seedlings to other's to plant as a way of carrying on a tradition.