Written in Granite: Branching out into the neighborhood

I didn’t expect this, but there she was. I took it as a sign of hope.

A statue that appears to be the Virgin Mary stands in the backyard, facing the home, framed by the beauty of nature.

I don’t go looking into other people’s yards. However, after a neighbor’s towering maple tree was removed last week and my own huge, fallen maple was lifted out, extra sunlight and openness now grace several properties, bringing a new perspective to our corner of the neighborhood.

I was checking on the cleanup at the back of my yard and my next-door neighbor’s property when I noticed the religious statue. It was beautiful to see. Maybe it was always there. Either way, it’s a gentle reminder that we are all more alike than we are different.

Every neighbor experiences challenges and successes, good times and bad ones and situations that sometimes don’t have easy answers.

The world can be a cold place, and more often than not, we don’t know all our neighbors. It’s not anyone’s fault. We lead busy lives, have responsibilities, and social media has left many of us communicating through our technological devices.

Often, you come home from work, school or anywhere else, go inside and shut the door.

But I’ve found that neighborhood togetherness can work, and that’s a good thing. After my tree split and fell across my backyard in June, leaving behind a jungle of branches and snapping the stairs off my little deck, I learned it wouldn’t be easy to remove the mess.

The unfortunate news was that a crane would be needed to lift the massive split leader and the rest of the standing 60-foot tree.

That meant a higher cost and the permission of my neighbors behind my backyard on the next street over.

Why? Decades ago, trees were planted at the edges of yards as boundary markers, and 100 years later, an enormous, weakened tree is often squashed between properties with nowhere to go. Not having precise access to pull these majestic plants up and away can be difficult and dangerous.

So, I called David Hirko, the longtime expert, Army veteran and owner of Hirko’s Tree Service in Nashua. His motto: “We Go Where Others Can’t.” And yes, he goes to the Lowell area, too.

Hirko, whose team has removed about 20,000 trees over the years, told me there was no way to get the maple out of my yard unless we went to the home behind mine on the next street over and set up a crane on the neighbor’s driveway.

About 20% of his tree removals involve a crane. You pray the massive limbs being carried over your neighbor’s rooftop are securely brought down into the waiting trucks below. You also pray the multi-ton crane doesn’t destroy the neighbor’s blacktop or anything else.

The property owners couldn’t have been kinder.

The “beautiful beast” of a tree was finally removed without issue, thanks to Hirko’s right-hand man, Hector Morales, leading the charge. Morales, who he’s known for 30 years, is in the process of buying Hirko’s business.

Recently, the neighbor faced a similar, hard-to-access location with their own old maple tree and a larger crane would have to be set up on my driveway, mere inches from the front side of my house. I was nervous, but Hirko’s team removed the tree through a well-orchestrated process and with zero damage to my driveway or home. I’d offer up my property again without hesitation.

Sometimes, you only need faith.