A homeowner's question about a dying oak stuck with me for months

Back in March I did a removal job in Naperville for a 60 foot white oak that had root rot. The owner, a retired teacher named Dave, stood there the whole time and asked if we could save just one limb to make a bench. I told him no, it was too far gone, but he kept asking polite questions about why the rot spread so fast. He mentioned he planted that tree with his son 30 years ago, and you could hear it in his voice. After we hauled everything off he gave me a cold Gatorade and said thanks for being straight with him. I still think about how he treated us like people, not just a crew with chainsaws. Has anyone else had a client who made a routine job feel personal like that?

1 comments

1 Comment

rowan7254d ago

Always the opposite for me. The ones who get too attached make the job drag out twice as long, and sometimes they get weird about the price once they see the tree come down. You got the rare good one, sounds like. Most of my routine jobs are people who barely look up from their phones, so I'll take a cold Gatorade over small talk any day.