A tree grows in New Jersey... (for now)

My parents have lived in the same house since the early 70's -a 3 bedroom ranch in suburban New Jersey. Growing up, we had two huge maple trees - one in our front yard and one in the back. They were great- they provided shade and privacy, and were huge.

The one in the back yard died a number of years back, and was replaced by a shed and additional deck space. It's limbs were chopped up and burned in my parent's fireplace.

Now, it looks like the one in the front is dying too. While most of the limbs still have leaves in the final stages of turning yellow and falling off, other branches have nothing. The trunk has several places where the bark is falling off, and huge mushrooms are sprouting out of the tree trunk.

It makes me sad - the tree is older than I am, and thus is something I've always associated with home. It's kind of a signiture of my parent's house - the house with the huge maple in the front. It's death is a reminder of my own mortality and that of those I care about.

I took some pictures of it while I was home for thanksgiving. It was creepy, like visiting a family member who you know will soon be dead of an untreatable illness. yet the mushrooms that sprout from it are beautiful in their own way. I don't know if they are what is killing the tree, or just a symptom of it's death.

So here are the pics, in no particular order:

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