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Light Drizzle Fog/Mist A tree grows in Bellmore
North Bellmorite Natalie Sorvillo turns 90, wishes to commemorate husband
Natalie Sorvillo, of North Bellmore, and her husband Joseph went to the McDonald’s in Wantagh in 1988 with their newborn granddaughter Jennifer Gembara Pagano. It was Christmastime and the couple bought a special edition Happy Meal that came with an evergreen seedling.
“It was not even the size of my pinky,” Sorvillo said. “But my husband… he made everything grow.”
Sorvillo grew teary-eyed as she spoke, revealing that her husband died in 1999. The tree, however, has remained standing in her backyard.
After Joseph planted it in a small cup in 1988, Sovillo added, “It just grew and grew and grew.”
The evergreen now stretches roughly 20 feet in the air, with patches of pinecones on its crown. On Sept. 1, Sorvillo celebrated her 90th birthday and said that all she wanted was to commemorate her husband for nurturing the tree when he was alive.
Sorvillo’s daughter Joanne Gembara added that she believes her family is being visited by Joseph’s spirit when a red cardinal lands in their backyard. To pay tribute to this belief, she clipped plastic red cardinals to the branches of the tree.
“It’s so, so gorgeous,” Sorvillo said. “I look at it everyday.”
