Introduction
Remigen, 11 November 2026
Some gestures need no words. Kneeling in the damp earth, digging a small hole, laying something fragile inside and hoping it will grow. It is an ancient gesture, and it is what we did, almost in silence, one November morning.
This summer we opened up something new on Funere: the chance to plant a tree in memory of a loved one, in a reforestation project in Switzerland, together with Almighty Tree. We didn't quite know what to expect. Within a few months, your response surprised us. Hundreds of trees donated. Hundreds of names. Hundreds of stories that chose to carry on as leaves, branches and roots.
Trees are planted twice a year, in spring and in autumn, when the soil is most welcoming and young saplings have the best chance of taking root and following their natural course. Being there mattered to us. Not only to understand every step, but to be able to tell everyone who entrusted us with a memory about the beginning of a new story.
A forest in the mist
On 11 November we went to Remigen, in the canton of Aargau. It is one of four forests where, in November, the 400 trees donated on Funere over the past months were planted. Here, we planted 150 of them.
A grey, drizzly day. As we entered the forest, a light mist welcomed us, hanging between the trunks and making everything quieter, almost mystical. And within that grey, the colours of autumn seemed to glow even brighter. The red, the orange, the gold of the leaves that, at the slightest breath of wind, let go of the branches and drift slowly to the ground. There they merge with the soil and become nourishment for what is yet to come. Nothing is lost. Perhaps that is why this project moves us so deeply. In a way, it speaks of those who have been. Of what we let go, and of what, precisely by being let go, keeps on giving life.
As we reach the plot, a roe deer darts past us before vanishing among the trees. Some call it the elf of the woods. We like to think it will be one of the guardians of this young forest in the years to come.
Making room for life
Then, almost as if someone wanted to help us, the mist parted and a shaft of light crossed the forest. Just enough to spare us from working in the rain.
Planting a tree is harder work than you might imagine. You have to hoe, break up the soil, make room for new life. At the bottom of the hole you place a small bag of nutrients, which the forester calls, with a smile, "the vitamins". Then you lay the sapling in, so small it looks defenceless.
Oaks and several species of Sorbus. That's no accident. The forester explains that no one really knows how the world will change. Some species will struggle more, others less. A forest made of many differences is a stronger forest, able to find its balance and to last. It struck us as a lesson that reaches far beyond the forest.
The soil is carefully closed around the roots and gently pressed down, to give the sapling the firmest possible footing. Finally, each young plant is protected by a plastic tube anchored to the ground with a wooden stake. It shelters the sapling from the weather and, yes, from the forest's inhabitants too. It will watch over it until it is ready to stand on its own.
The oak that keeps watch
As I plant my small oak, there is an imposing one behind me. The forester tells me it is more than eighty years old. Maybe a hundred.
I stop to look at it. It was here before me, before many of us. It has seen generations pass, winters, springs. And now it will be the one watching over these newcomers. Until one day, in eighty or a hundred years, when none of us are here anymore, they will be the ones reaching for the heights, giving shade, shelter and life to the forest. And to someone we do not yet know.
This is how continuity works. Those who were here watch over those who arrive. And those who arrive will one day watch over those who come after.
For those who were, for those who will be
Everyone who donated a tree will receive a reference to the project where it was planted. A real place you can visit: to walk, to remember, or simply to breathe.
Remigen is only one of these places. The other 250 trees were planted in three Almighty Tree projects, in forests weakened by bark beetles and drought: in Ins, canton of Bern, in Middes, canton of Fribourg, and in Saint-Cierges, canton of Vaud. Everywhere with the same principle: many different species, from oaks and hornbeams to maples and limes, because a varied forest is a more resilient one.
In the years to come, we hope to plant thousands of trees all across Switzerland. As a testament to those who were here. And as a promise to those who will be.
Trees that will grow slowly, in silence, asking for nothing. A little like the people who have left us. They are no longer here, yet they keep living in us, in our gestures, in our memory. And now also in the long time of a forest, which will keep growing when it is our turn to make way.
To all of you who chose to remember in this way: thank you. From today, a part of the people you love has taken root.
