The Box Elder of Antonius Kerkhof

This box elder outlived the parish that planted it. The Antonius kerkhof belonged to a Eindhoven congregation nicknamed the Steentjeskerk, split off from the older Trudo parish in 1919 and folded back into it in 1977 when it could no longer stand alone. The tree, planted sometime in the 1920s, has stood through the whole rise and fall. The national tree register flags it for two reasons at once, rare for this kind of entry: real aesthetic value, and a species genuinely uncommon in this part of the country. Box elder is an ordinary enough tree across much of North America, but a century old specimen singled out by an official Dutch register is a different thing, and this small, half forgotten churchyard is where it happens to be growing. The cemetery itself closed to new burials in 2007, taking only urns since, which is usually how a place like this drifts toward being quietly overlooked. It has not been: it still opens daily from ten to five, still belongs to an active parish, and this tree is one of several worth the walk inside its low walls.