What We Built From Tyler’s Tribute Sign: A Garden, a Memory, and a Legacy

The sign was made for Up With Trees. My son Tyler's name on a board, planted 2 significant places in Tulsa, a small piece of permanence in a city he loved. The first version said "everyone's best friend." My mom called and asked if she could say something different on the second one. She wanted it to say "always loved, forever missed."

There is a difference between how the world knew Tyler and how a mother knows her child. That difference lives in those two phrases and I understood immediately why she needed the words to change.

So we had the sign remade. And the original board, twelve feet long and eight inches tall, came back to me with nowhere to go.

Leon was turning 4. He does not know yet what that board represents. He does know his Uncle Tyler is the most special boy to his honey, and we had a long piece of wood and a project in mind, and that was enough for him.

How a Tribute Sign Became a Raised Flower Bed

We took the original board to Home Depot and had it cut into two six-foot pieces. Then we got two matching six-foot pieces and four more to complete the frame. On our family vacation this summer, Leon and I collected rocks together without him knowing why they mattered or where they would end up. He just liked the rocks.

Back home he painted and stained the boards with me. Side by side, the way you do a project with a three-year-old, which means it took longer and looked better than anything I could have done alone. My friend Ray came with me to get the dirt because that is what friends do. They show up for the unglamorous parts.

On Leon's birthday we planted the first plant together.

I do not have the words for what that afternoon felt like. So I will just say it happened and leave it there.

What Up With Trees Actually Does

Up With Trees is a Tulsa nonprofit that has been planting and caring for trees across this city since 1976. For $1,000 a year you can sponsor a tribute tree with a sign bearing your loved one's name, planted in a Tulsa park or green space where people will walk past it for decades.

Tyler's sign is out there in this city right now. His name is on a board in the ground somewhere people walk and run and live their lives without knowing whose name they are passing. I know. And my mom knows. And someday Leon will know.

You can learn more about Up With Trees and their tribute tree program at https://www.upwithtrees.org.

The Seventh Annual Run to Remember

This October 1st we will gather at 15th and Riverside for the seventh annual Run to Remember in Tyler's honor. The run begins 30 minutes before sunset, at approximately 6:48 PM, so we finish as the sky changes color over the river.

Seven years. I had to count twice because part of me could not believe it had been that long and another part of me could not believe it had only been that long.

The Run to Remember is sponsored by Legacy Realty Advisors, Acrisure, and AMC Mortgage. Everyone is welcome. You do not have to be a runner. You just have to be willing to show up, which is the only thing Tyler ever asked of anyone.

If you want to support the Tyler Glenn Beatty Rainbow Relief Fund, you can donate directly at https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/5816779.

What This Has to Do With Real Estate and Legacy

I have been asked more than once why a real estate blog talks about grief and gardens and three-year-olds painting boards in the backyard. The answer is that Legacy Realty Advisors was never just about transactions.

Legacy means something deliberate was left behind. It means the choices you make today become the story someone tells about you later. Tyler's legacy is a fund that has helped families in crisis, a tree with his name on it growing somewhere in Tulsa, a raised flower bed built from a board that helps people remember Tyler’s life every time they drive by, and a little boy who collected rocks on vacation.

That is what legacy looks like when it is lived rather than planned.

The work I do in real estate is the same. Every home I help someone buy or sell is the beginning of someone's next chapter. Every tenant I help work toward homeownership is a seed planted twenty months before the harvest. Every client who trusts me with one of the largest financial decisions of their life is, in some small way, building something that will outlast the transaction.

I do not take that lightly. I never have.

If you want to support Up With Trees or join us on October 1st at 15th and Riverside, I would love to see you there. And if you are ready to start your own next chapter in Tulsa real estate, I am ready to help with that too.

Book a time with me directly at https://link.cncsdirect.com/widget/booking/2BPftOW1aYttaxdttERz.

Book a time with me at Legacy Coaching Solutions if you are ready to take your dreams to the next level and make them a reality.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can be the first to see what we are writing about:

3-2-1 Takeaway

3 Things to Remember

• Up With Trees is a Tulsa nonprofit that has been planting tribute trees across this city since 1976. For $1,000 a year you can have a sign with your loved one's name placed in a Tulsa park where people will walk past it for decades.

• The seventh annual Run to Remember in honor of Tyler Glenn Beatty takes place October 1st at 15th and Riverside, beginning at approximately 6:48 PM, thirty minutes before sunset. Everyone is welcome.

• Legacy is not planned in a single moment. It is built in the accumulated choices to show up, do the work, love the people in front of you, and leave something behind that keeps growing after you are gone.

2 Questions Worth Asking

• Is there someone in your life whose memory deserves a living tribute rather than just a moment of remembrance?

• What are you building right now that will still be growing ten years from today?

1 Thing to Do Next

Come run with us on October 1st at 15th and Riverside in Tulsa. Bring someone you love. If you cannot be there, support the Tyler Glenn Beatty Rainbow Relief Fund at https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/5816779. And if you want to learn more about Up With Trees and their tribute tree program, visit https://www.upwithtrees.org.

Education without implementation is only entertainment. — Jennifer Mount, Legacy Realty Advisors

The Tyler Glenn Beatty Rainbow Relief Fund is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations may be tax deductible. Please consult with a licensed tax professional regarding the deductibility of charitable contributions.

In case you are wondering what a project like this costs:

The entire raised bed came in at approximately $330, not counting the rocks, which were free because Leon collected them on a family vacation.

Here is the breakdown:

Boards: $200
Stain: $50
Landscape paper: $10
Dirt: $70
Rocks: $0 (collected by a three year old who just liked them)

Total: $330

This is a project any family can do in an afternoon with basic tools and a helper who does not mind getting dirty. The most expensive part is the lumber. Everything else is minimal. If you already have stain or landscape fabric on hand the cost drops significantly.

What it requires is not a budget. It is a reason and someone to build it with.