Widow tries to stall removal of a family tree in San Diego

Reporting from San Diego —  All Marie Ostwald wants is for the pepper tree that has graced her front yard to stay standing as long as she is alive. “I just need a couple more years,” she wrote on a Facebook post over the weekend that she titled: “A Mother’s Day plea.”

City officials said last week that the tree, which stands some 35 feet high and has a trunk that is 4 feet in diameter, was unstable and had to be cut down.

“I just ask that the tree stay as long as I’m alive, I’m 91 now. I make a plea to Mayor [Kevin] Faulconer to step in and save our lovely tree. He’s my last hope. On Monday, I’ll sit with the tree and ask the workers not to take it. I ask other mothers in the neighborhood, if you have time tomorrow or in the next couple of days, will you sit with me? If I have enough support, I think they might not take her. I just need a couple more years,” she wrote on the social media site.

On Monday morning, six women had come out to support Ostwald after hearing her story.

Mayor Faulconer also heard her plea and his office sent out the following message.

Marie Ostwald, a 91-year-old Allied Gardens resident, asked the city to help her save a tree she and her late husband planted. … The roots from the tree were cracking the adjacent sidewalk and some of its root system had to be removed in order to make repairs. However, the city is pausing plans to remove the tree in its entirety. Staff will ask a second arborist to review the tree’s stability to determine if there is any risk of the tree falling. Mrs. Ostwald, I want you to know that we heard you. Happy Mother’s Day.

Ostwald was overjoyed when she heard the news and said she was grateful to the mayor for his consideration.

“I am very happy,” she said. “I want to cry.”

Ostwald’s husband, Whitey, died in 2005 after having a stroke. The couple, who raised four children at the home, had planted the tree shortly after they moved in.

“We planted it. We grew up with it,” said Ostwald, adding that the thought of losing the tree makes her very emotional because her “heartstrings are attached” to the leafy tree with red blossoms.

The problem started a couple of weeks ago when Ostwald said she contacted her councilman’s office and requested that some work be done on the sidewalk. “All I wanted to do was help the city,” she said.

Crews came and the work was done. “I was so happy,” Ostwald said. But the next thing she knew, more workers came out and told her the tree had to come down.

Now, she hopes city officials will reconsider altogether and save the tree once and for all.

“Please save the tree for a little while longer,” she said.

debbi.baker@sduniontribune.com

Baker writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

UPDATES:

3:53 p.m.: This article was updated with the San Diego mayor’s response to Marie Ostwald’s plea to save her pepper tree.

This article was originally published at 12:16 p.m.