12 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 1, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Living Oakville Beaver LIVING EDITOR: ANGELA BLACKBURN By Kim Arnott SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Phone: 905-845-3824, ext. 248 Fax: 905-337-5567 e-mail: angela@oakvillebeaver.com · WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2007 Preventing weeping over old willow Case to be argued tomorrow at Town meeting hen the willow tree draping over Angele Kazlauskas' Chartwell Road house was planted, she was a young child living in Lithuania. She had no way of knowing that, a continent away, a young soldier was planting a tree before heading off to Europe to fight in the Second World War. About 10 years ago, that former soldier pulled into her driveway and told her the tale of the four-storey tree that is now the centrepiece of her large property. "He just stood there and gawked at his tree," Kazlauskas, 71, recalls. "He was so delighted no one had cut it down." Growing up where she did in Lithuania, the Oakville dentist feels a strong sense of gratitude toward the Allied soldiers, who battled to protect her country. W "And here I am, living under that soldier's tree since 1975. This is a story that should be told every Remembrance Day." Angele Kazlauskas, Oakville resident "He just stood there and gawked at his tree. He was so delighted no one had cut it down." Angele Kazlauskas, Oakville resident "And here I am, living under that soldier's tree since 1975," Kazlauskas says. "This is a story that should be told every Remembrance Day." It isn't clear, however, whether the large willow will still stand come this November. On Thursday, Kazlauskas will battle an order from the Town to remove the tree. The willow has been deemed a hazard by the Town's property standards enforcement officers, and ordered to be cut down. It stands about 20 feet from her house, although poses no threat to any other property. Kazlauskas admits the tree has been neglected. In recent years, her husband died, following an accident that left him unconscious and hospitalized for more than two years. "Trimming a tree, looking after a tree it wasn't my priority," she says. "But I'm kind of slowly coming back to the fact that life is for the living, and I'm trying to correct all of this," she SABRINA BYRNES / OAKVILLE BEAVER STANDING UP FOR HISTORY: Oakville residents, in front of a tree that was planted by a Canadian soldier in the 1940s, are arguing with the Town of Oakville which has marked the tree with an 'X' for removal. From left, Marianne Hawthorne member of Parks and Open Spaces, Mindaugas Leknickas, homeowner Dr. Angele Kazlauskas, Joyce Burnell advocate in saving the 250year-old oak tree and Philip van Wassenaer from Urban Forest Innovations Inc. said. Kazlauskas has now hired an independent arborist, who will testify to the Town's property standards committee that he sees no safety reason for removing the tree, provided it is trimmed. The Chartwell Road resident has also recruited the assistance of former dental patient Marianne Hawthorne, who has been involved with town heritage issues for years, and who currently sits as a member of the Town's Parks and Open Space Committee. Along with Joyce Burnell, who last year spearheaded the campaign to save the historic oak tree on Bronte Road, and was recently recognized with a Community Spirit Award for her efforts, Hawthorne is helping Kazlauskas navigate through the Town process. "For tree lovers, like ourselves, if there's a possibility to save a tree, we try to do it," said Hawthorne. Kazlauskas, who spends several months a year offering dental care at three free clinics she has established in Lithuania, says she wants the Town to allow her time to trim the tree, nurture it back to good health and find the Oakville veteran who planted it. Although she had the former soldier's name once, she can't recall it now, and so is searching for information through Town property records and veterans' organizations in Ottawa in hopes that he, too, may be drawn into her efforts to save the tree from impending destruction. "(The tree) is a reminder to me of the love of a human being for other people he doesn't even know," said the Chartwell Road resident. Only a few hours after the fate of the tree is placed in the hands of the Town committee, Kazlauskas is due to return to Lithuania for another stint helping those in need. Like the soldier who originally planted the tree, Kazlauskas will leave town with the hope that she will return home to Oakville to see it once again.