Friends and family of Clinton Hittle talk, laugh and console each other during the Arbor Day event at Brandon park. The Tulip Poplar that was dedicated to Mr. Hittle brought out the whole office staff from the USGS in Williamsport to gather to remember their friend, husband and father Clinton. Elizabeth Hittle, Clinton’s wife, said, “it’s spectacular,” as she looked not only at his tree but the whole setting of the other trees in front of her in the park Friday afternoon. “We’re not from here but we’ve been here for 10 years and I think Brandon Park is gorgeous,” Elizabeth said with tears in her eyes. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

A lone and healthy looking Metasequoia is planted in Brandon Park in Williamsport.

The redwood has greened up and is planted in memory of the late Meredith Lowry, who passed away in February.

“May this tree grow tall and strong like the love she gave to us – the Girls,” was listed on the 2026 Arbor Day ceremony.pamphlet.

Lowry was an osteopath, a physician living in Oregon for about 40 years, one of The Girls kindly said following the noon Arbor Day service at the park Friday.

“But she grew up here in Faxon,” her friend said. The Girls attended Loyalsock Township School District. “We’ve known each other for 66 years . . . we all went to grade school together.”

“She was a wonderful person, she loved nature,” she said. “Anywhere we would go, she would point out plants that heal us. She was very much into homeopathic measures for medicine.”

Lowry traveled all over the world, including spending a year in India, where she got the inspiration to go into homeopathic medicine.

“She was a free spirit, just a lovely woman, very funny and just always a lot of fun,” she said.

Lowry died very suddenly and The Girls miss her very much.

Lowry passed away from lung cancer.

“We are just ‘The Girls’ who grew up with her,” she said.

A friend who does landscaping at a nearby sports complex suggested redwoods for Lowry.

“We will never see the magnitude but Jennifer Dudek (vice chairperson of the Brandon Park Commission) said there are a lot of redwoods in the park,” one of The Girls said.

“They grow to be hundreds of feet tall, so we won’t be around to see it,” she said with some of The Girls by her side.

“She had poems she wrote that were included in a book of poetry and our friend’s husband read the poems aloud and another friend, who is in the hospital, talked about her relationship with Lowry because Lowry held her friend when she became sick,” she said.

Each one of The Girls took in the beauty of the Metasequoia.

The Girls acknowledged, though, it was not their first Arbor Day at the park, having memorialized another friend, a renowed artist, Marguerite Bierman, about 14 years ago.