LYNN – Seventeen-year-old Tammy Siphan, a Lynn English High School senior, took her own life three days into the school year.Some of her fellow students came together Friday on the last day of the school year to honor her by planting an Eastern Red Bud tree in her memory. And they also celebrated the girl they say they will never forget.The tree is located near the school’s driveway on Goodrich Street and has reddish heart shaped leaves.Bill McGuinness, advisor to the Asian American Club, said he picked out the tree because in the spring it will be covered with pink blossoms.”I couldn’t think of anything more perfect,” he said.Standing quietly amid more than 50 students gathered for the event on the drizzly morning, Tina Siphan, Tammy’s mother, said the tree was perfect.”It reminds me of a tree from home, Cambodia,” she said.Tina Siphan said she was surprised when her niece, Manirichana Chan, who is a freshman, told her about the tree planting.”I was surprised that they would do this,” she said.Tina Siphan called her daughter a quiet girl, a sweetheart and said, her voice breaking slightly, there were many things she would love to say, but couldn’t find the words.”I carry her with me wherever I go,” she said, pulling an oval shaped container from her pocket.The clear plastic egg was adorned with blue beads and held two pictures of Tammy Siphan. Tina Siphan said it was so she could see her daughter from both sides.Tina Siphan was escorted to the tree planting by her son, Sam Chea, who just happened to arrive at his mother’s house as she was leaving for the event.A nine-year Coast Guard reservist, Chea said he had been on the road all night driving back from a training exercise in Cape Fear, N.C.He described his sister as young, quiet and smart.”And organized,” he said with small smile. “She was very organized, but she kept to herself more than anything and that was the problem.”Principal Thomas Strangie said members of the Asian American club asked if they could plant a tree in Siphan’s honor shortly after her death and began to raise money.Students struggled to carry the tree across the school yard. The tree already stands about 8-feet, gigling at times.Salina Prum said it hadn’t always been like that.”In the beginning of the year it was tough, but it got better,” she said.Prum, along with about six other girls, wore T-shirts with Tammy Siphan’s picture and RIP emblazoned across the front.Jeanine Bui, who called Siphan her best friend, echoed Prum.”It was hard at first losing her but I knew she was up there and she would want me to enjoy my life,” Bui said. “She taught me that.”Bui said Siphan was the kind of friend you could easily share secrets with because “you knew she wouldn’t tell anyone. She knew all my secrets.”Samantha Nop called her friend beautiful on the inside and outside.”We would go to the mall together,” she said smiling. “She was always blaming me for her not having any money. We would hang out at her house after school too.”Jannifer Chamroeun said the hardest part is knowing she will never see Siphan again, but she said the tree meant a lot to her.Chan agreed. As a freshman, Chan will see the tree every day for the next three years, which she called bittersweet.”She was always happy, bubbly, smiling,” Chan said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “I miss her, but this means a lot.”As the crowd thinned, Chan walked to the tree and pulled a clear plastic egg from her pocket and hung it high on the tree.It contained a picture of her cousin, Tammy Siphan, and it had a note attached.The note read, “It’s still us against the world right?” and was signed from Chan and her brother Paul.”That was the last thing she said to me,” Chan said. “That it was us, me and her and Paul, against the world.”McGuinness said he hoped that as the students go out into the world they will carry Siphan with them.”When you pass by here again, I’m hoping this tree will remind you that Tammy was a great kid with a great smile and while we’re