The Massachusetts widower who spent a long time rising this yr’s Rockefeller Middle Christmas tree has tragically suffered a stroke which will now forestall him from witnessing the long-lasting lighting ceremony, his household says.
Earl Albert, of West Stockbridge, Mass., is at present recovering in a hospital in Albany, NY, after his well being not too long ago took a flip — simply weeks earlier than the Dec. 4 lighting of his beloved tree, his kinfolk instructed NBC’s “Today.”
“Earl has been recovering from a stroke and is receiving great care,” his household stated, including that he hoped for a speedy restoration.
“He is looking forward to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting and working hard to be able to attend in person.”
Albert had donated the 74-foot-tall, 11-ton Norway spruce in honor of his late spouse, Leslie, who he planted the tree with again in 1967 once they have been newlyweds.
“We first used to decorate it when it was small, and then it got so big that I couldn’t decorate it,” Albert stated of the now-towering tree.
Albert was first approached about offering the tree by Rockefeller Middle’s head groundskeeper again in 2020 — simply days after his spouse, a part-time college nurse, had died.
The household took it as an indication and Albert has since described the tribute to his spouse as “probably one of the greatest honors” of his life.
The colossal conifer — which can quickly be alight with dazzling 50,000 multi-colored bulbs — is the primary Rockefeller Middle Christmas tree grown exterior New York State since 1959.
The tree is about to be lit up and topped with a Swarovski crystal star through the “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” occasion on Dec. 4.
