Flushcut
If your going would you put a hand on his shoulder and say good bye tree brother for me.
Scrat
The remembering prectice110 thread.
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Flushcut
If your going would you put a hand on his shoulder and say good bye tree brother for me.
Scrat
flushcut
Addicted to ArboristSite
I will touch the urn for you, he has been cremated.
flushcut
Addicted to ArboristSite
Howdy guys, Matts service was very nice and he is now resting beside a white oak at the nursery and the chainsaw salute was a nice touch. It was a good turn out with maybe 150 people and about forty of which were tree guys or have worked with or for Matt.
Thanks man. Saturday night we celebrated my wife's Birthday and late in the evening around midnight gathered around the fire we all raised a glass to say good bye to Matt 'Prentice 110' and wish him a safe journey.
It would be great if you could describe the chainsaw salute, I have never heard of that. I am reall happy to hear so many fellow tree guys attended his service.
Scrat
treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
Thanks flushcut for letting us know about it and for going. I bet you are a great friend to all fortunate enough to be one to you.
I actually pulled into a cemetary and thought about Matt for a while today. Best I could do. I sometimes hate how trapped I am in my life here.
RIP Matt
flushcut
Addicted to ArboristSite
It was ten to fifteen saw from little trim saws to Matts 660 running full out for five seconds, pause then another five seconds just after his tree was planted.
Thank you for the compliment. I hear you about being too busy in life but you have to stop and smell the roses or one day it could be gone.
JPS was also there we had a mini AS pow wow. LOL
Last edited:
John Paul Sanborn
Above average climber
I got there as his sister was wrapping up his eulogy, then they planted an oak for his memorial (I think his ashes went in the pit). I joked with Raj about people should come and "fertilize" it in the night, once and a while.
As for the salute, they warmed up around 7-9 saws of various size and then held them over their heads and revved the ####ens out of them for a couple minutes. Kinda neat.
I hope my wife has that level of support when I buy the farm. As Raj said there were quite a few there, several stopped me as I walked out to thank me for taking the time to drive in from out of state. Lota ink there, shaved heads, mullets and weathered skin, all working people, definitely the salt of the earth.
sgreanbeans
Treeaculterologist
Would have loved to go, wanted to, but like TV, I often find myself trapped, always something that HAS to be done. Sounds like u guys sent him off the right way, gone, but damn sure not forgotten. I will say this, when I do think about him, its always good and mostly funny!
limbwalker54
ArboristSite Operative
Just dropping a Rest Easy Brother to Matt. I haven't been on here in a few weeks and was shocked. He was only 2 years older than myself. My prayers out to all his family and friends. It is good to have such concern and care from a good group of people online. We may be far from each other in distance but we all share a common bond.
treevet
Addicted to ArboristSite
I think it would be nice if at least once a week somebody yanks this thread up to the top of the board by making a post in his honor. Sun. might be a good day for this.
opcorn:
opcorn:MissPrentice110
ArboristSite Lurker
John Paul Sanborn
Above average climber
I think it would be nice if at least once a week somebody yanks this thread up to the top of the board by making a post in his honor. Sun. might be a good day for this.
Much better then a sticky, it is a conscious act keeping it active.
flushcut
Addicted to ArboristSite
I have to say there are a few threads that I know Matt would have been all over especially the one about the minis.
Mike Cantolina
Addicted to ArboristSite
I just gave him some rep.
:msp_thumbup::greenchainsaw::greenchainsaw:oke::kilt::blob5::yourock:
Jeff
oke::kilt::blob5::yourock:Jeff
MissPrentice110
ArboristSite Lurker
Remembering how I met Matthew, the most passionate tree climber I´ve ever known…!
Alright…how do I begin? I believe that if such things as soul mates exist, then Matthew was mine. Even though we lived worlds apart, he in the Northwestern suburbs of Chicago and me in Northwestern Germany, our paths have crossed many times and we were always drawn back into each other´s lives, most of the time not knowing about it but finding out about it later.
The first time I saw him was exactly nine years ago during a visit to Chicago in September 2002. He had just turned 21 the month before and was on his way back from a festival he had attended in the city. We met at a food corner inside of Union Station. I was sitting there with a friend of mine, sipping ginger ale, just killing time while waiting for the train.
The first thing I ever heard of Matt was him joking with his friends and his loud laugh was so outrageously obnoxious and contagious at the same time that I couldn´t help but start laughing myself. When I turned around to look at him he said “Hey there girl what´s so funny?” which made me laugh even harder. Looking at me with a curious smile he just sat down at the table next to me and started to ramble on like no other. His sense of humor was ridiculously charming. At some point he just stretched out his hand and said “Sorry I didn´t introduce myself…I´m Matt and who are you?” When I told him my German name he repeated it a dozen times until he knew how to pronounce it right. By that time the whole crowd at the food corner knew my name and was cracking up laughing. Yeah that was so like him…making everybody laugh at someone else´s expense and at the same time making a fool out of himself, too! Freakin´ hilarious!
Turns out we were waiting for the same train and I remember thinking to myself “Oh no this is goin’ to be a hell of a train ride!” Which of course it was! The conductor even asked me “Hey Lady, is this young man bothering you?” By the time I had to get off the train, Matt had succeeded in talking me into going on a date with him. Believe it or not he made me flip a dime to let fate decide whether I would meet him again or not. What a lucky son of a gun! I´m sure by the next day his whole town knew he was going out with that German chick he had picked up at the train station.
When he showed up for the date the next evening he was wearing a hippie shirt from the early `70ies with a flower design that looked like taken out of my grandma´s closet, khaki colored corduroy pants and polished brown leather shoes. Nobody in his early 20ies that I knew of would have ever gone on a date like that. He looked like he had fallen out of a quirky `70ies road movie. Wherever we went people were staring at him but he didn´t seem to care, his eyes were on me the whole time.
He took me to a café that had the best hot cocoa and chocolates in town. The time was flying by while we were talking and laughing. We had a blast! Later on he took me to the movies and we watched “A Road to Perdition”, a mafia movie, which played in Chicago during prohibition times, but that´s about all I remember, ´cause Matt did his best to really distract me, savoring every single moment. After the movie he offered to walk me all the way back to my friend´s house so he could spend even more time with me.
It was a very clear night with a moonlit sky and the whole scenery was so terribly romantic, it almost seemed unreal. While we strolled through a tree lined avenue he commented on the tree work that had been done there. And by listening to his tree stories I realized that he was as dedicated and passionate about his tree climber job as I was about working as an archaeologist in Mexico.
Sharing his love for the outdoors but being scared of heights and chain saws myself I had high respect and admiration for what he was doing. When I told him that, he just laughed it off and when I turned around to look at him he was gone.
He had jumped up to the next tree and was climbing it rapidly, making it all the way up. When he reached the top he was shouting out my name. I was totally stunned. What an unforgettable night! Spending time with him was intoxicating and I had a deep understanding of what he meant when he told me with a beaming smile: “You´ve gotta live life to the fullest!”
When it was time to say goodbye he picked me up and swirled me around in the air until I was getting dizzy and his heart was pounding heavily. And while he was kissing me passionately all of a sudden it hit me and I was absolutely sure that we would meet again…! Little did I know back then that life was not going to treat him kind and that it would take more than eight years filled with a couple of long distance overseas phone calls and letters, until I´d finally see him again…!
And last summer we even came as close to each other as being at the Niagara Falls at the exact same time without knowing about it. Each of us was hanging out at the falls with someone else that we were dating at the time. When we found out about it a couple of weeks later we were shocked by the synchronicity that in the meantime both of us had also gone through a difficult break up. That´s when it really hit us that maybe we were destined to meet again and I invited him over to Germany to spend the Christmas season with me.
Little did I know that he would die so young and that I´d be the one he´d spend his last Christmas and his last New Year´s with! Looking back on the times we had I am glad we sucked the marrow out of it. Never will I forget the last night with Matthew at my place in Germany when I played “You and I will meet again” by Tom Petty and he just picked me up and swirled me around one last time…!
Thinking about it now I´m certain I was his best kept secret and I´m pretty sure he would kill me, if he found out that I posted this story here, but I know that he´d have to come back to life to do that and I´d die gladly in his arms if I had just one more day and one more night with him!
Matthew was that kind of person you only meet once in a lifetime and my life will never be the same without him! He will always be in my heart and I will be forever thankful for the good times I got to spend with him. I miss him like crazy and can´t believe I´ll never be able to listen to his tree stories again…! Whenever life would get me down and I couldn´t sleep at night I would call him on his cell phone (he was usually still at work because of the time difference between Europe and the USA) and just listening to the chainsaws and his machinery in the background while he was shouting orders and making stupid jokes was enough to make me happy again.
And now I am here in honor of him and I´m hoping to read some tree stories once in a while, so that Matthew didn´t teach me the words stump grinder, log splitter and wood chipper for nothing! By the way while he was staying here with me in Germany for almost two months last winter I think he would have gone nuts if he hadn´t been able to check out the Arborist Site almost every night!
When I was cooking dinner for us I always heard him laughing about your jokes or the WTF pictures, he was commenting on the winter time jobs you guys had taken on and showing and explaining all the equipment to me. Not that I really understood any of the machinery you guys are using but it was fun to see how happy it made him to be talking about it.
One night we even did a virtual tour with google street view through his town so he could show me all the tree work he had done over the years. I am really glad you have been such wonderful friends and tree brothers to him! Thanks to all of you!
Alright you tree guys out there, if you have continued reading this story all the way up to here I´d like to ask you a favor in honor of Matthew. I know that being a tree climber ain´t for sissy boys and is quite dangerous, probably one of the most dangerous jobs there is, so please make sure you´ll always take good care of yourselves, and the next time you see your special Lady pick her up and swirl her around like crazy until she gets dizzy and you are breathing heavily…! You never know if it might be the last chance you´ll ever get to do that!
Like Matthew said: “You´ve gotta live life to the fullest!” And I believe that´s exactly what he did!
Alright…how do I begin? I believe that if such things as soul mates exist, then Matthew was mine. Even though we lived worlds apart, he in the Northwestern suburbs of Chicago and me in Northwestern Germany, our paths have crossed many times and we were always drawn back into each other´s lives, most of the time not knowing about it but finding out about it later.
The first time I saw him was exactly nine years ago during a visit to Chicago in September 2002. He had just turned 21 the month before and was on his way back from a festival he had attended in the city. We met at a food corner inside of Union Station. I was sitting there with a friend of mine, sipping ginger ale, just killing time while waiting for the train.
The first thing I ever heard of Matt was him joking with his friends and his loud laugh was so outrageously obnoxious and contagious at the same time that I couldn´t help but start laughing myself. When I turned around to look at him he said “Hey there girl what´s so funny?” which made me laugh even harder. Looking at me with a curious smile he just sat down at the table next to me and started to ramble on like no other. His sense of humor was ridiculously charming. At some point he just stretched out his hand and said “Sorry I didn´t introduce myself…I´m Matt and who are you?” When I told him my German name he repeated it a dozen times until he knew how to pronounce it right. By that time the whole crowd at the food corner knew my name and was cracking up laughing. Yeah that was so like him…making everybody laugh at someone else´s expense and at the same time making a fool out of himself, too! Freakin´ hilarious!
Turns out we were waiting for the same train and I remember thinking to myself “Oh no this is goin’ to be a hell of a train ride!” Which of course it was! The conductor even asked me “Hey Lady, is this young man bothering you?” By the time I had to get off the train, Matt had succeeded in talking me into going on a date with him. Believe it or not he made me flip a dime to let fate decide whether I would meet him again or not. What a lucky son of a gun! I´m sure by the next day his whole town knew he was going out with that German chick he had picked up at the train station.
When he showed up for the date the next evening he was wearing a hippie shirt from the early `70ies with a flower design that looked like taken out of my grandma´s closet, khaki colored corduroy pants and polished brown leather shoes. Nobody in his early 20ies that I knew of would have ever gone on a date like that. He looked like he had fallen out of a quirky `70ies road movie. Wherever we went people were staring at him but he didn´t seem to care, his eyes were on me the whole time.
He took me to a café that had the best hot cocoa and chocolates in town. The time was flying by while we were talking and laughing. We had a blast! Later on he took me to the movies and we watched “A Road to Perdition”, a mafia movie, which played in Chicago during prohibition times, but that´s about all I remember, ´cause Matt did his best to really distract me, savoring every single moment. After the movie he offered to walk me all the way back to my friend´s house so he could spend even more time with me.
It was a very clear night with a moonlit sky and the whole scenery was so terribly romantic, it almost seemed unreal. While we strolled through a tree lined avenue he commented on the tree work that had been done there. And by listening to his tree stories I realized that he was as dedicated and passionate about his tree climber job as I was about working as an archaeologist in Mexico.
Sharing his love for the outdoors but being scared of heights and chain saws myself I had high respect and admiration for what he was doing. When I told him that, he just laughed it off and when I turned around to look at him he was gone.
He had jumped up to the next tree and was climbing it rapidly, making it all the way up. When he reached the top he was shouting out my name. I was totally stunned. What an unforgettable night! Spending time with him was intoxicating and I had a deep understanding of what he meant when he told me with a beaming smile: “You´ve gotta live life to the fullest!”
When it was time to say goodbye he picked me up and swirled me around in the air until I was getting dizzy and his heart was pounding heavily. And while he was kissing me passionately all of a sudden it hit me and I was absolutely sure that we would meet again…! Little did I know back then that life was not going to treat him kind and that it would take more than eight years filled with a couple of long distance overseas phone calls and letters, until I´d finally see him again…!
And last summer we even came as close to each other as being at the Niagara Falls at the exact same time without knowing about it. Each of us was hanging out at the falls with someone else that we were dating at the time. When we found out about it a couple of weeks later we were shocked by the synchronicity that in the meantime both of us had also gone through a difficult break up. That´s when it really hit us that maybe we were destined to meet again and I invited him over to Germany to spend the Christmas season with me.
Little did I know that he would die so young and that I´d be the one he´d spend his last Christmas and his last New Year´s with! Looking back on the times we had I am glad we sucked the marrow out of it. Never will I forget the last night with Matthew at my place in Germany when I played “You and I will meet again” by Tom Petty and he just picked me up and swirled me around one last time…!
Thinking about it now I´m certain I was his best kept secret and I´m pretty sure he would kill me, if he found out that I posted this story here, but I know that he´d have to come back to life to do that and I´d die gladly in his arms if I had just one more day and one more night with him!
Matthew was that kind of person you only meet once in a lifetime and my life will never be the same without him! He will always be in my heart and I will be forever thankful for the good times I got to spend with him. I miss him like crazy and can´t believe I´ll never be able to listen to his tree stories again…! Whenever life would get me down and I couldn´t sleep at night I would call him on his cell phone (he was usually still at work because of the time difference between Europe and the USA) and just listening to the chainsaws and his machinery in the background while he was shouting orders and making stupid jokes was enough to make me happy again.
And now I am here in honor of him and I´m hoping to read some tree stories once in a while, so that Matthew didn´t teach me the words stump grinder, log splitter and wood chipper for nothing! By the way while he was staying here with me in Germany for almost two months last winter I think he would have gone nuts if he hadn´t been able to check out the Arborist Site almost every night!
When I was cooking dinner for us I always heard him laughing about your jokes or the WTF pictures, he was commenting on the winter time jobs you guys had taken on and showing and explaining all the equipment to me. Not that I really understood any of the machinery you guys are using but it was fun to see how happy it made him to be talking about it.
One night we even did a virtual tour with google street view through his town so he could show me all the tree work he had done over the years. I am really glad you have been such wonderful friends and tree brothers to him! Thanks to all of you!
Alright you tree guys out there, if you have continued reading this story all the way up to here I´d like to ask you a favor in honor of Matthew. I know that being a tree climber ain´t for sissy boys and is quite dangerous, probably one of the most dangerous jobs there is, so please make sure you´ll always take good care of yourselves, and the next time you see your special Lady pick her up and swirl her around like crazy until she gets dizzy and you are breathing heavily…! You never know if it might be the last chance you´ll ever get to do that!
Like Matthew said: “You´ve gotta live life to the fullest!” And I believe that´s exactly what he did!
Thank you so much for sharing your story. It certainly meant a lot to me.
Danke!
Danke!
MissPrentice110
ArboristSite Lurker
To Matthew!
Matthew, I want to thank you for the good times we had and for making me the happiest I´ve ever been. I don´t know how, I don´t know when, but you and I will meet again…! Love always, M.
View attachment 200879
Matthew, I want to thank you for the good times we had and for making me the happiest I´ve ever been. I don´t know how, I don´t know when, but you and I will meet again…! Love always, M.
View attachment 200879
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