The Massachusetts widow who spent decades cultivating this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has tragically suffered a stroke and may now not be able to witness the iconic lighting ceremony, her family has announced.
Earl Albert, of West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, has recently been in poor health and is currently recovering in an Albany, New York, hospital — just weeks before his beloved tree will be lit on December 4th. , his relatives said. NBC's “Today.”
“Earl is recovering from a stroke and is receiving the utmost care,” the family said, adding that they hope for a speedy recovery.
“He is looking forward to the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and is working hard to be able to attend in person.”
Albert donated a 74-foot-tall, 11-ton Norway spruce in honor of his late wife, Leslie, who they planted together as newlyweds in 1967.
“I used to decorate it a lot when I was little, but then it got too big and I couldn't display it anymore,” Albert said of the now towering tree.
Albert was first approached about donating the tree in 2020 by Rockefeller Center's head groundskeeper. It was just days after his wife, a part-time school nurse, passed away.
The family took it as a sign, and Albert has since said paying tribute to his wife was “probably one of the greatest honors” of his life.
The giant conifer tree, which will soon glow with 50,000 multicolored light bulbs, will be the first Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to be grown outside of New York state since 1959.
During the “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” event on December 4, the tree will be lit up and decorated with Swarovski crystal stars.
