Family Tree and Home

About Family Tree and Home

Four in the morning in Belchertown, and the only light on Route 202 is a plow's — the great town common still blue and unmarked, the hills toward the Quabbin holding their weather. Family Tree and Home works the winter side of this valley town, clearing driveways, lots, and walkways while most of the street is still asleep. There is a plain, physical satisfaction in a finished pass: the bank cut to a clean edge, the pavement dark and bare again, the walk opened wide enough for two to pass. By the time the sky turns the pale gold that comes up over the Pioneer Valley, the storm has been answered and the day can simply begin.