Sue Sheeler, lived loud up to the end

The gnarled branches of a massive oak tree nearly scrape the roof outside Sue Sheeler's bedroom where the limbs hang low, visible from nearly every window. During construction of the home in 1984, builders suggested she remove the tree - they weren't sure how much longer it would live, they said, and uprooting it would make construction easier. No, she told them. No trees will be cut down. Build the house around them. Over the next decade the tree shaded her family as both expanded. Her children grew into adults under its thick branches. Its deep-grooved bark soon absorbed the laughs of her grandchildren.