My
mom lives in Berkley in a modest home made unique by a champion White Ash tree
in the back yard. The tree's trunk has a circumference of 18 ft. and I believe
the age to be 250 years plus. We can only imagine what the tree has witnessed,
what storms it has survived and who has rested in the shade of the tree in centuries
past. What makes one tree so durable? It would be tragic to see this giant brought
down by an insect, the Emerald Ash Borer that has been destroying ash
trees throughout southeast Michigan. 
In the early 1940's my parents began looking for a home in the suburbs, namely Berkley. They both were raised in the tip of the Upper Peninsula and had moved to Detroit in the mid-1930's. Berkley was just being developed and they were looking at a subdivision in the Eleven Mile and Coolidge area. They were shown a house on Harvard when my mom spotted 'the tree' two blocks to the south. She asked to see that house and shortly thereafter, purchased the tree. . . .the house just happened to come with it.
The earliest pictures I remember of the tree are with my brother, born in March of 1944, in a baby swing which was suspended from a lower branch of the tree. At that point, the tree became a nanny. I came along two years later and I have seen many photos of my brother and I playing in cooling shade of the tree. As my brother and I grew, so did the tree's responsibilities. By the early 50's, the tree became a major source of entertainment for us and our friends. We had a wooden swing and a tire swing hanging from the tree. If I had but a nickel for every hour we spent on that tire swing (it was a swing, a bucking bronco and a friend when no one else was around), I'd be closer to wealthy today.
We were able to master tree climbing, the tree became a club house, a lookout, a virtual amusement park, complete with thrills, when we'd see how far out or how high we could climb. Many times my mother had to come out in the back yard, and 'talk us down' when we ventured beyond the limits of our courage. I know she spent many hours watching out the back window, apparently thinking her vigilance would keep us from falling out of the tree. It must have worked. No one was ever permanently injured.
My brother and I grew and moved away. The tree kept my mom cool in the summer, nature's own air-condition, and became my mom's own harbinger of spring when the first leaves would appear. In the fall, the leaves turned a golden yellow, and at time specified by its own internal clock, the leaves actually "rain" down. It's a wonder to see, but even better to stand under the tree and get rained on in shades of yellow and gold. It has also been a great refuge for many birds and squirrels.
In the 60's, the tree was recognized as being a Champion Tree by the Cranbrook Big Tree Society, and a plaque was attached to the trunk. At the time, it was considered to be the second largest White Ash in Michigan! I have no idea of its current ranking. My mother is now 93 years young and loves the tree every bit as much as she did when she first spotted it some sixty years ago. Love like that doesn't come along every day.
Submitted by Elaine S.
Elaine:
I found you and your mother's story on the ash very enlightened and sentimental.
I wanted to convey to the public that some trees are worth saving and that many
people have a love for them. Thank you for sharing your historic grand champion
tree with us.