Chicago Heights' Christmas tree sprouts memories for Crete woman
Posted on 2009-12-28 16:09:50 CST
When Anna Mohr, of Crete, looks at Chicago Heights' official 2009 Christmas tree, she sees her life.
She should; they grew up together.
The 50-foot pine tree was planted for Mohr by her father about 55 years ago at the family's home in Chicago Heights.
"It was exciting for me to see something from my childhood make it to the big time," said Mohr, whose parents, Ervin and Margaret Batterman, moved into their house along Joe Orr Road around 1950.
A few years later, her father planted two pine trees in the front yard, one for Mohr and one for her younger brother, Peter.
The tiny saplings grew into prolific pine trees during the 50-plus years the Battermans lived there.
In fact, the one tree grew so large that its roots started causing damage for Cheryl Veile, who currently owns the house at 96 E. Joe Orr Road.
A story in the SouthtownStar reported Dec. 20 on how Veile donated the tree to the city of Chicago Heights to be used as its official Christmas tree this year.
The tree, all decorated in ornaments and lights, now sits on Veterans Mound on the northwest corner of U.S. 30 and Chicago Road, across from St. James Hospital.
"It's come full circle. Pete and I were born at that hospital," Mohr said as she and her husband, Kent, gazed up at the tree with fondness.
Mohr's eyes moistened as she thought about her late parents. Her father served in the Air Force during World War II and had attended services at Veterans Mound through the years. He also had worked as a mechanic and bookkeeper at a Sinclair gas station that once occupied the site of a CVS pharmacy across the street from where the tree now stands.
"It's kind of mixed emotions I feel. I wish my parents had lived to see the tree being so honored," she said.
Mohr said she remembers the tree, and the other pine tree still standing on Joe Orr Road, dominating the front of their house when she was a child. It was too big to climb, but they played games around it.
"We used to play badminton in the front yard and I remember the shuttlecock going into the tree all the time and we'd have to climb in to get it," Mohr said.
The tree being donated to Chicago Heights almost passed by without Mohr knowing about it. Her sister, Ellen Christie, who works nearby at St. Agnes School, saw the SouthtownStar story and alerted her sister.
"Oh, I got so excited when I heard," Mohr remembered.
Before being told, Mohr, who hadn't seen the tree much since her parents died, said she had passed by it twice a week for the past several weeks on her way to her part-time job in Homewood.
"I remember seeing it when it first went up and thinking to myself, 'They found a nice full one this year,'" she recalled. "Little did I know it was my tree.
"It looks so beautiful at night with the snow on it and the lights glistening. My little tree grew to do well for itself."
December 28, 2009
BY JOHN K. RYAN
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