It was nearly 60 years ago that Earl and Lesley Albert put down roots.
Newlyweds living at their new home in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, they went out to their front yard one day in 1967, dug a hole and planted a Norway Spruce that at the time stood about waist high.
There, alongside the Albert family driveway, it stood for decades.
Like any other tree, it blended into the backdrop despite being a constant through life's many changing phases.
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It was there in 1968 when the Alberts purchased the local grocery store Loeb's Foodtown, greeting them each time they left for or returned from work over the next five decades. It was there years later when they brought their newborn son Michael home for the first time, growing as the family grew. It was there decades later when Michael married his wife Shawn and when their three children were born, providing shade over the years as the kids played in the sandbox beneath the tree at their grandparents' house.
It was there in 2020 when Lesley passed away at 78.
Two days after she died -- and 53 years after the Alberts planted the tree -- there was a knock on their front door by a person Michael later described to relatives as “an angel.”
The real angel, of course, was up above: the matriarch who adored her family, Christmas, and the tree in her front yard that she decorated for holidays, even the Fourth of July.
The person at the door was Erik Pauze, the head gardener at Rockefeller Center responsible for picking the plaza's famed Christmas tree. Earl and his daughter-in-law Shawn were in the yard when Pauze approached them to ask if they would be willing to donate their tree.
"We took it as a sign from my mother-in-law," Shawn said, "just because she loved everything surrounding Christmas, the tree, all of it."
Earl quickly agreed to donate the tree, later telling TODAY, "I consider it probably one of the greatest honors of my life."
That honor, he believes, would be shared by his wife, as her tree becomes an iconic Christmas symbol for millions to enjoy.
"I'm thinking she's thrilled," he said.
‘We finally get to honor her’
Pauze, who has selected each Rockefeller Center Christmas tree since 1995, had been in the area that July to scout a nearby tree. While driving, he spotted the 74-foot, 11-ton tree towering over the Albert home.
"I saw this tree right in front of me coming down the road," he said. "And I knew I had to knock on the door."
After he was introduced to Earl, he asked if he could take pictures of the tree.
"As I was walking around, the tree was perfect all the way around," Pauze said. "I said, 'Wow! This is beautiful.'"
Its beauty will be on full display Wednesday during the Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting Ceremony on NBC.
The tree was carefully cut down in November and lowered by crane onto a trailer for its 135-mile drive to Manhattan. After the holiday season, the tree will be milled into lumber and used by Habitat for Humanity to build houses for those in need.
It marks a new beginning for the tree and the family, Michael said, calling it a tribute to his mom.
“She was a giving person,” he said of Lesley, who was also part-time school nurse for Berkshire Country Day School. “It would mean more to give it to the community, let everyone enjoy it. That’s what we are really excited about, is to go to New York City and let the world see it.”
Taking the place of the tree on the Albert property will be a memorial dedicated to Lesley with new plantings. For Lesley’s family, the Rockefeller Center tree lighting will also serve as a proper celebration of her life.
“She passed in 2020, so it was Covid, and we weren’t able to have a funeral,” Shawn said. “And she was such a huge part of the community, so to me, this is like her gathering we finally get to have and that we finally get to honor her.”
‘It’s overwhelming emotion’
When Lesley passed away, Earl moved into a new home and Michael, Shawn and their sons Andrew, Brendan and Evan moved into the Albert home – keeping the house, and the tree, in the family. Shortly after the family was announced as the donors of this year’s Rockefeller Center tree, they received a card from the McGinley family, who donated last year’s tree.
“You’ll never forget the sound, the flip of the switch, and the roar of the crowd,” Shawn Albert recalled the note saying. “You’ll get chills, and just the emotion, it’s overwhelming emotion."
It’s an emotion Earl hopes to witness in person, having suffered a stroke just weeks before the lighting.
“He is looking forward to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting and working hard to be able to attend in person," the family shared in a statement with TODAY on Nov. 13.
While the tree still stood on the Albert property earlier this year, Earl discussed the anticipated emotion of the moment.
“It will get to me, I'm sure,” he told TODAY.
The roots of the tree that Earl and Lesley put down nearly 60 years ago have stretched from Massachusetts to New York City, where its branches represent a lifetime of memories that occurred beneath them. When the 50,000 lights wrapping the tree are turned on for the first time in Rockefeller Center, what will Earl be thinking of?
"Lesley," he said. "How much she enjoyed trees. How much she enjoyed Christmas."
