By Ron Hayes, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 5, 2003


WEST PALM BEACH -- Jenny Ludwig Bechtel was the sort of older woman who relished a glass of Mogen David wine every night before bed.

She was the sort of older woman who would order cherry pie in a restaurant, then lift the crust and sprinkle sugar all over the filling before eating it.

"She was a sport," her granddaughter remembers with a laugh.

So when Grandma Bechtel died at 96, back in April 1984, Lila Young decided she was also the sort of woman who deserved a tree.

Within the month, Young had planted four small eugenia shrubs around the light pole outside her house at Sunset and Aravale roads. She nursed them, she nourished them, and when they had grown tall enough, she turned them into topiary.

"This heart is my grandma," she says, pointing, "and I'm this heart over here -- so I could always look down and see them from my bedroom window."

In nearly 20 years, the four little eugenia shrubs have climbed nearly 20 feet up that light pole, silently letting themselves be shaped into abstract squares and cones and spheres, as well as hearts. Young decorated the tree at Christmas and Halloween, so it also has grown into something of a neighborhood landmark.

"Some people are into cars and boats," she says, laughing. "I just happen to be into trees."

And then the city of West Palm Beach decided to replace the storm sewer and water main pipes on Sunset Road.

Lila Young, tree hugger, is about to become Lila Young, tree lugger.

Because the sewer system needs to be where the tree is, the Youngs must move the tree to their second home, several blocks south on Washington Road. And yes, the light pole will go along for the ride, free of charge, because the city is slated to replace the light poles with lampposts anyway. But the city, and contractor, did make a contribution.

City Engineer Richard Pittman and the contractor, Whiting-Turner, have agreed to pay $1,000 of the move's $4,000 cost, says Greg Meyer, a spokesman for the city.

"The money's coming out of the contractor's budget, so it won't cost the city any more than was originally contracted for," Meyer notes.

The Youngs are paying the rest.

"I drive a Suzuki," Lila Young says. "I don't spend money on $200 bottles of wine."

Boynton Landscaping will handle the job of moving Young's beloved eugenia.

"I've never been asked for a tree that size," says Chas Ward, vice president of the 75-year-old company. "But if I had to find one, it would cost between $12,000 and $15,000."

In a few weeks, Ward will lift the tree, pole and all, onto a truck.

"The only possibility we're concerned about is that it's in very sandy soil, and since it's not one tree but four different plants, we're going to brace the tree to the pole so it all comes up at the same time."

At its new home, the grandmother tree and the light pole will stand in the Youngs' yard, not on the swale.

"Somebody said, 'Why don't you put it in a park?' " she says. "But the city couldn't afford to put in the time or patience to care for it."

Other neighbors don't want to see it go at all.

"It's my visual pleasure, and I love it," says Anita Gilbert, the Youngs' next-door neighbor. "It's history. I hate to see it go, but I'd rather see it live."

As she stands in the yard, watering Grandma Jenny's memorial eugenia tree, Lila Young can see the crew from Whiting-Turner inch ever closer.

"The workmen have been really good," she says, and laughs. "When they go by in the dump trucks, they wave at me like, 'There's that crazy lady.'

"But I want people to know it's like moving houses. If you have a tree and you really love and care about it, just cough up the bucks and move it."

ron_hayes@pbpost.com