By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-12-06 07:32:21 | Updated at 2024-12-22 16:30:40
2 weeks ago
The widower who donated this year’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree hosted a “little watch party” of Wednesday night’s lighting ceremony in his room at a rehab facility after a recent stroke stopped him from attending in person, his family said.
Earl Albert provided the 74-foot-tall, 11-ton Norway spruce in honor of his late wife Leslie, who died in 2020. The couple had planted the tree — then much smaller — in their West Stockbridge, Mass. yard as newlyweds in 1967.
Albert had been eager to watch the 50,000 multi-colored bulbs illuminate his tree in Manhattan, but he tragically suffered a stroke last month and is still recovering, his relatives told Today.
“He’s doing OK,” Albert’s daughter-in-law, Shawn, told the outlet. “He’s at Sunnyview Rehab so he’s working towards strength and wellness. [He still has some] medical hurdles to get over.”
Nonetheless, he watched his and his wife’s tree dazzle thousands of revelers — including several of his own family members — on TV Wednesday night.
His daughter-in-law said he hosted a “little watch party” in his room at the facility, which he decorated for the holidays, and FaceTimed his grandson who attended the tree lighting in person.
“He had his room decked out. He had his Santa hat on and my son FaceTimed with him, so he was able to sort of be here,” Shawn said.
The grandfather has also gotten “thousands” of holiday cards and letters from strangers who wished him a full recovery, she added.
Albert’s special tree was first scouted by Rock Center’s head gardener and long-time tree picker Erik Pauze in 2020 — just days after his wife Leslie, a part-time school nurse, had died.
To the grieving new widower, that was a sign as he and his wife enjoyed decorating their backyard tree for Christmas every year until they couldn’t anymore due to its sheer size.
“We first used to decorate it when it was small, and then it got so big that I couldn’t decorate it,” Albert said of the now-towering tree.
The couple’s son Michael, Shawn’s husband, said he felt like the tree — and its magical lighting — was a way of sharing his mother’s memory with the world.
“It was an overwhelming emotion of joy,” he told Today of the moment he watched the lights come on from Rock Center. “It was a tribute to my mother’s life. Just the giving back and the loving nature of her. It was like our way to kind of give to the world. It’s awesome.”
Even if he couldn’t be there in person, Albert cherished the gift he gave to the city and those around the world who come to see its lovely branches above the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink.
He described donating the Christmas tree as “probably one of the greatest honors” of his life.
