For Amanda Doster, trees represent the idea of who her husband James was to her:

‘No, the tree has to be done tomorrow,’ she is saying into the phone. She is talking to the owner of a nursery who dug up a baby maple tree at the old house that had been planted in honor of James. For months, it has been at the nursery, surviving on a drip line. He had promised to replant it at the new house on the third anniversary of James’s death, and now is saying he might not be able to get a crew. ‘It’s a big deal,’ Amanda says, near tears” (109).

The next day, as part of her plans for the anniversary of his death, Amanda takes their daughters to James’s grave marker. He is not buried there; rather, it’s where markers are erected for soldiers who are MIA, buried at sea, or cremated. While there, Amanda spots a perfect little acorn that’s dropped to ground near James’s headstone. Grace, one of Amanda’s daughters, puts it in her pocket, and Amanda then gets the idea to take it home. She places the acorn in a jar of sawdust James kept: “‘So if all goes well, come spring, we will plant an oak tree,’ she tells the girls with a sense of anticipation.