Not long ago I lost my father to cancer. My mother, an only child, is in Florida. My sister and niece are in Pittsburgh. Aunt, uncle and cousins in New Mexico. My wife and I are in Manhattan. We have no children.

My family is on its way to being no more. It is a slow process, one that takes decades. Life always finds a way. Families do continue. But I never expected there would be so few descendants from our branch of the tree.

Fallen trees, roots to the sky.