The last time Kate Middleton personally updated fans on her progress after her cancer diagnosis, she revealed that she was undergoing chemotherapy. In her recent update, she shared that she still has months of hospital visits ahead of her. Fortunately, her road to recovery hasn’t been all bad. “There are good days and bad days,” she wrote. “On those bad days you feel weak, tired and you have to give in to your body resting. But on the good days, when you feel stronger, you want to make the most of feeling well.”
Kate looked like she was having one of her better days in her photo. She was looking up and admiring the boughs of the willow tree, almost as if she felt a sense of kinship with it. There’s a possibility that she was. “The placement of Kate beside a mature tree in this new portrait is part of a long history of symbolically associating her (and her family) with the endurance and strength of English trees,” tweeted Lauren Kiehna, editor of The Court Jeweller.
According to the Trees for Life website, willow trees are known for regrowing quickly after being cut, so they’re considered a symbol of vigor and survival. In other words, Kate — who has a long history of planting trees — chose the right plant if she wanted to illustrate that she has not lost her fighting spirit and plans on bouncing back better than ever.
