Nancy MacKerrow, a Spokane woman, lost her daughter Susie Stephens in 2002 when she was hit by a bus in St. Louis. She was 36, a bicyclist, a mountain climber, a world traveler and an activist, ironically, for the rights of pedestrians and bicyclists.

Nancy took the enormous grief and used it for a greater good. She is planting Susie's Forest all over the world, but especially in Spokane on city streets and in parks.

She paid for some of the 119 trees herself or others pay as memorials to people who have died. Nancy always shows up at the ceremonies with cookies.

Nancy was in action today at Lewis and Clark High School, helping students with a tree-replanting project.

(About the S-R photographer Dan Pelle photo: Lewis and Clark High School drama students, Liz Connelly, 17, and Jon O'Grady hang messages on one of six trees along 6th Avenue between Washington and Stevens Streets, March 25, 2011 in Spokane, Wash.  After hearing about the Spokane Public Schools' replanting project, Nancy MacKerrow (right), of Spokane, whose daughter, Suzie Stephens, an LC grad who was killed while crossing a street and hit by a bus in 2002, helped gather students from the drama, advanced art ecology, special education, debate and Japanese Club to plant trees and adorn them with tree-grams.)

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