GOSHEN — Family members gathered at Davies Sports Complex on June 30 to remember loved ones and join to dedicate trees in the ever-expanding Memory Lane collection.
Trees were planted in memory of Esther McCleery, William H.H. Linder, Kelley Anne Pleis, Genevieve “Jean” Neiman, William L. Pascoe Jr. and Anthony A. Visalli.
Bonnie Millard, a Middle Township employee who oversees the memorial tree program, shared thoughts with the donors during a brief ceremony just south of the main baseball diamond where other trees are already growing.
Pastor Rudy Sheptock of Lighthouse Church offered a blessing on the young trees.
He shared with the family members his loss of two sons, and noted that two Memory Lane trees are growing in their memory.
Once, when he asked for the Lord’s intervention as he was thinking about one of those sons, he told the small gathering that he looked up, and saw a baseball nestled in the trees’ branches.
That, he said, proved to him that his son, who loved playing baseball, was still very close, and near the baseball diamond.
Many found that a heart-warming recollection to help sustain them as they remembered their own family members.
