Before Wildwood Farms had a logo, it began with a question I could not answer: what do I do with all the love that remains after someone dies?
When I lost Dawne in December 2016, the future I had imagined disappeared. Life kept moving, but grief did not follow a schedule. Some days it was loud. Other days it sat quietly beside me. I learned to function around the absence, but I never stopped feeling it. I did not want to erase that part of my life. I wanted to find a way to carry it forward.
Somewhere in that journey, I started thinking about trees. A tree needs a place to take root, years of care, and room to grow. It changes with the seasons, survives difficult weather, and offers something to the people who come after us. I began to imagine a farm where someone who had lost a spouse, a parent, a child, or a friend could plant a tree in their memory. Not as a way of replacing them, but as a place to say their name, return on anniversaries, and see a living tribute growing.
That idea became Wildwood Farms.
The W on this logo represents a future I am working toward, not a farm that already exists. I still need to find the right land, understand its soil and water, choose trees suited to the site, and build a plan for caring for them long after planting day. I want families to know that their trees will not simply be planted and forgotten. The responsibility matters as much as the symbolism.
I picture walking paths, young trees becoming mature ones, and families returning year after year. I picture people sharing stories beside a tree, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, and finding that both can belong in the same place. And I picture Dawne in the reason it all began.
I cannot undo what happened in 2016, and I do not believe planting trees makes grief disappear. But I believe love can shape what we choose to build. Wildwood is my attempt to turn one of the hardest experiences of my life into something useful, lasting, and generous.
For now it is a name, a logo, and a promise to keep working. One day, I hope it will be acres of living memories. One tree at a time.
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