And for now, crimson and white carnations surround the base of this new red maple, some of them wilting in the frigid fall air, others holding strong, petals as vibrant as they were a week ago. The view is one she’d have to smile over. She was a smiler, after all. It’s perched atop a slight hill on a bend inside the McCarthey Family Track and Field Complex, the tops of the Wasatch Mountains dusted in white in the distance.
It’s everything she loved about Utah, encapsulated there on the edge of the track she called home.
If in need of a jolt of inspiration, a sprinkling of motivation, which Lauren never, ever was short on, or if they want to glance at Lauren’s Tree coming around that corner and just keep running.