Friday, December 5, 2008 10:02 PM CST
Mother successfully moves threatened evergreen with ties to deceased son
By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — Cindy Hall was not wearing a coat as she watched a crew unearth a particularly special evergreen tree from her backyard.
Two days before Thanksgiving, autumn had already taken a sharp turn toward winter, but Hall braved the cool breeze anyway.
For a while, at least.
However, as workers re-planted the 11-foot blue spruce in the park across from Hall’s house, she finally decided to observe it all from the warm confines of her vehicle.
The brisk weather had kept the tears at bay, but now that Hall was isolated from the chilled wind, emotion washed over her.
“I just sat in my vehicle and sobbed,” she said.
The blue spruce was a favorite of her son, Tyler Masulis. He often commented on how much it had grown compared to other trees in their yard. And he seemed to have a connection to this one tree; in fact, the young man and the blue spruce shared certain traits, according to his mother.
“It so much reminds me of my son, just standing there tall and strong and proud,” said Hall, who is business manager for the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier.
So when Tyler’s tree was threatened, Hall decided she would not stand for it — she would not lose the tree too.
After jumping through several logistical hoops, she finally made arrangements to relocate the tree to Peterson Park, on the opposite side of Broadway Avenue from her house. Now, when she looks out her window, she can again see the tree that reminds her so much of her son, who died on April 16, 2004, in a drunken driving crash.
He was 20. Tyler left behind his fiancee, who was pregnant with his daughter at the time, as well as two brothers and his parents.
Almost five years later, Hall’s grief has matured (but not necessarily diminished) in tandem with her son’s blue spruce — a type of evergreen common in the Rocky Mountains, especially in valleys near streams.
When Hall’s family first moved to the Broadway residence nine years ago, the blue spruce was only about two feet tall. “The tree always meant a lot to my son,” said Hall. “He told me one time, ‘It’s so strong and it’s grown so much.’ It was just special to him.”
Earlier this year, the family placed a storage shed behind the house near the blue spruce. Not only did the structure block Hall’s view of the tree, she believed the shed eventually would suffocate it.
“I knew it was going to die there; it had nowhere to grow,” she said. “The fact that I was going to lose this tree was bothering me.”
She had heard of other people planting memorial trees in Mattoon parks, so she contacted the city’s park department about the possibility of transplanting the blue spruce.
Kurt Stretch, superintendent of parks, lakes and cemeteries for the city, told her that if she hired someone to move the tree, there was a place for it in Peterson Park, right across from Hall’s home.
“We were happy to do it,” Stretch said, noting there are about 15 other trees in Peterson Park that have been relocated or newly planted in memory of a loved one.
Hall faced some challenges tracking down a tree specialist willing to tackle such a large evergreen, but she ultimately secured the services of Bill Sehi of Montrose.
She was expecting to pay upwards of $400 for the operation, but once Sehi learned of the reasons behind the move, he said he would only charge $75.
After some complications with Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators (JULIE), the day finally arrived for Tyler’s tree to travel across the street to its new home. It was Nov. 25, two days before Thanksgiving, which also happens to be Hall’s birthday.
The transplant went off without a hitch, and the tree is doing well so far.
Although it is not decorated with Christmas lights like the other trees in Peterson Park, the tree is illuminated by two spotlights, courtesy of Stretch. Hall said she prefers it this way — bright but unadorned. “That’s how Tyler was his whole life,” she said.
“He didn’t need any decoration to stand out. He was one of those people who just filled a room ... Tyler had a quiet strength about him.”
On the five-year anniversary of Tyler’s death in April, Hall may place a memorial marker by the tree. Maybe.
Until then, “I can look out my window and I can see that tree” anytime, she said, adding that she was very grateful for the help from Stretch and Sehi.
“It meant so much,” she said.
Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.
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Red Green wrote on Dec 5, 2008 9:53 AM: