Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This is Forest Stories.
I am the Poet in the Forest, a children's series that I pinned
out in the nineteen nineties. Now, none of it would be possible if
it wasn't for this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I
talk about it so much that I thought maybe it's time that you get to
know what has inspired me for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of
the conversation. Welcome back to the forest. We're taking a stroll this new
day to Larry Lane. Larry Lane is named after my wife's first rescue that
came from Los Angeles. We lost him in two thousand and one, and
you know, we honored him. We honored him with his own section of
the forest. One of the things that took place, not only did we
plant this beautiful white pine which is now thirty five forty feet tall gives us
these unbelievable needles during the fall months, but we also honored a piece in
the ground and in it it's a plaque which I got to be honest with
you, I had totally forgotten about. And the reason being is because we
were putting down wood chips to fortify the soil, to give this the soil
and other opportunity to give it new energy. And just the other day I
noticed something the plaque that we put in the ground. For some reason,
this blue piece of stone was speaking out to me. And I've never talked
about it on four stories, but there it is. I'm looking at it
right now. Larry Anthony is what it says, and it has the date
that he passed away, which was August twelfth, two thousand and one.
And I'm so afraid of this headstone being here in the ground and exposing it
to the rest of the world because there are a lot of children that come
walking in this area, and I would hate for them to think otherwise of
this stone, something that they could steal, something that they think, you
know, belongs to them, because you know, it's just what kids do.
But it's beautiful blue. Even after all of these years, that's two
thousand and one, it's twenty twenty four, all those years, twenty three
years have gone by, and that headstone for Larry On Larry Lane is still
just as vibrant as his life and what he brought into this forest, the
way that he would run through the slow moving stream. He would go back
to the lake. He would just get all muddied up and smell like crud.
But that was Larry. That was Larry. And today brushing back the
wood chips to look at that stone. Today, a lot of memories,
a lot of love remains in this forest. Hey, thanks for being a
part of the conversation.