Black silhouette tree with spreading roots and leaves, with the word Family in script and a quote about branches and roots, shown as a tattoo design on a white background.

Tree with roots and family script quote

Botanical · Black and grey · Flash

A bold black silhouette of a leafy tree with a thick trunk and spreading roots fills the frame. The word Family is written in flowing script to the left of the trunk, and a quote in smaller script runs down the right side beneath the branches. The linework is solid black with no shading, and the composition is centred on a plain white background.

Botanical Tree Root Leaves Branches Family Script Quote

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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction

Dear Thomas,

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The men from the council came on Tuesday and took down the sycamore at the bottom of Mill Lane, the one you used to climb to watch the goods trains. They left the stump and the roots, which is the trouble, because the roots have gone under the wall and Mrs Pargeter's privy is listing like a coal barge. Your dad stood at the gate with his cap in his hands the whole time they worked, saying nothing. Then he fetched the spade and started digging round the stump the way you'd dig round a sleeping dog.

Your letter came Thursday. Sheffield, a room over a chemist's, a foreman who calls you lad. I read it twice at the table and Bessie read it over my shoulder and announced she's going to Leeds in the spring to train as a nurse. So that's two of you gone past the hills and me left with the kettle. I'm not complaining. Mrs Pargeter says I'm proud, and she's right about that.

Aunt Win sent a parcel with the good tea and a pressed fern from the moor road, the last of the bracken before it turns. I've tucked it in the family Bible between Ruth and Lamentations, where you'd know to look.

Dad asked me to tell you he's leaving the stump alone. He says it'll send up shoots from the root if we let it, and he'd like to see what comes up crooked. Come at Whitsun if you can. Whatever's growing out of that stump will be a foot high by then, and I want you to see it before your father pretends he planted it.

Love, Mam