A quiver of anger crept into James Fonde’s voice as he surveyed the bleak, littered patch of woods where his mother’s life ended, an overlooked corner of Croydon between Route 13 and a residential neighborhood.

“She wasn’t supposed to die back here,” he said. “I hate it when people say this is God’s plan. His plan was for her to die here, in the mud by a tree? Don’t tell me that.”

A few feet away, his brother, Brian Winder, sat on a stump, lit a cigarette, and hung his head in silence. Their mother, Beverly Winder, died on that spot last month when a storm-damaged tree Winder was cutting down struck another as it fell, changing direction and landing on her.

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