EDITOR’S NOTE: The Pioneer shares Johanna’s photos all the time on our Facebook page, and we featured her photo on the cover of this year’s Giving Guide. I had been contemplating a post for Mother’s Day, noting recent deathes of young people, and thinking of those moms without children, and for those without moms. This Hallmark holiday can be especially difficult. then I saw Johanna’s beautiful apple blossom photo, and read her very personal heartfelt story. And – immediately knew this is the story we all need today – and every day. Remember there is always hope.
By Johanna Froese 
It’s always been a funny little tree. Crooked branches, spindly, no blooms, no fruit. For those of you following my journey for some time, you may recall a post in the spring of 2020 when I first introduced Johnny’s Apple tree.
For those of you who may not know, I lost my son John to cystic fibrosis when he was 28 years young. But this post is not about loss or pain, it’s about hope. John had many interests and was an artist. He also loved gardening and was not afraid to try new things. He built a little greenhouse and planted everything from seed, including an ordinary red delicious apple seed from an apple he had eaten. That tiny seed grew into a little stick and that year, my son passed away.
I took the potted tiny stick tree and placed it in the yard. The deer chomped it half way down. I actually cried. I should have known better, but I was grieving at the time and not thinking clearly. I took the half eaten stick tree and planted it in the yard and placed a fence around it. I just wanted it to survive.
Over the next almost decade, the stick grew into a sad excuse of a tree. I nurtured it, weeded around it, fertilized it, loved it. Yet It was crooked, spindly and never bloomed. Until the year 2020. It had one tiny set of blossoms on it… I cried. I had loved that imperfect funny little tree for so many years without expectation that it would ever do anything. It didn’t need to. I had other trees that produced plenty. This ones job was just to do its best at living, that’s all. The blooms fell off, and there was no fruit. But the joy and hope those blossoms gave me were more than enough.
The next two years came and went and I’d check the tree for blossoms. No blossoms. But this year, an entire branch is blossoming!
I sat down last night and stayed up late writing, rewriting, and finally putting this all away. Why share? Why give away one of my pearls? I woke up this morning and thought, “someone needs this.” Someone out there needs some hope. So, I’m sharing for that someone.
Johanna Froese is a gifted photographer here in Tillamook County; we share her photos on the Pioneer’s Facebook page often. To see more of Johanna’s photos, go to https://johanna-froese.pixels.com/
