In the last days of his life, my father-in-law Mo had only one obsession: to cut down two trees in his yard – a dead ash and a really bad buckthorn. This was also the subject of our last telephone conversation and Mo told me that he wanted to give the contract to his neighbor Derek.
By taking over the house after the death of my father-in-law, we also inherited this task that he did not have time to accomplish. We don’t want this big bald ash tree to do any damage if it were to fall on a stormy day. I would have liked to keep the buckthorn, which I find beautiful, but it is really sick and doomed. And since you need a permit on the Plateau to cut trees on your land, you might as well take care of both at the same time. There will only be one lilac left, which I can’t wait to see in the spring.
When Derek offered his condolences to us, because he had been Mo’s neighbor since childhood, he also offered his services to us, and while chatting with him, I discovered an amazing journey. Last year, at the age of 50, he reoriented his career as a pianist in classical interpretation… towards the profession of pruner.
I know a lot of people have “reinvented” themselves during the pandemic, but how do you go from a grand piano to a chainsaw as a livelihood?
Because his musical vocation was serious. Derek Yaple-Schobert has a doctorate in classical piano performance from the University of Montreal, he specializes in Scandinavian composers, has already recorded two albums and toured in Canada, the United States and Europe.
Life forced her hand a bit when her mother fell ill after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. He became a caregiver. “For five years, I had to put my career aside to take care of her,” he explains. I won’t hide from you that the pandemic has also been a blow to the performing arts. »
When he returned to his life, he enrolled in a DEP in pruning at the Center de formation horticole de Laval, the merits of which he praises after having studied there for nine months, even if he was of course the oldest of the students. “Teachers don’t just teach knowledge, they transmit a passion, values,” he says. And I, regardless of education, have always admired people who have the humility to go back to school as adults.
It was at the small hunting camp he owns in a remote corner of Abitibi that Derek discovered his love of nature and the forest, even though he loves living in the heart of Montreal. Like my lover, he inherited his parents’ house, bought in 1982, where he has always lived since he was 6 years old. My boyfriend and Derek played together when they were kids, but they had a hard time recognizing each other as gentlemen when they saw each other again, which made me laugh.
Derek Yaple-Schobert was born in the United States. His stepfather, whom he considers his father, was of Danish descent and his mother taught French as a second language to Americans. He describes himself as a Francophile Anglophone, as he grew up in the Plateau and went to school in French – he also speaks Danish, Swedish and German. He remembers a much poorer neighborhood, where people didn’t care much about trees. This is no longer the case today, because not only is a permit required to cut or prune trees, but it is also mandatory to replace them with recommended species. I think it’s good that there are rules. In my Center-Sud neighborhood, a guy once cut down a huge tree that provided shade and reduced the heat island of all the yards of a block in order to build a swimming pool for himself. My mother still talks about it angrily, 15 years later.
That’s exactly Derek’s job, taking care of the process from start to finish and working on his own: he does it the right way.
I can tell you that cutting down a tree in town is not like cutting down a tree in the woods. There are security and space constraints, you don’t shoot it down shouting “timber”; it is debited, starting from the top. It’s impressive, because I saw Derek with all his equipment at the top of a large ash tree, affected like many others in Montreal by the borer, at another neighbor in the street.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
When people hear about Derek’s new job, they’re all curious to know more. Derek discovers that many people have trees that lack love and word of mouth picks up. His diary is filling up quickly. Most recently, he hired colleagues for a contract for 25 trees on rue Dickson, in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
He loves his new life, and he talks about it with stars in his eyes. “I don’t see trees the same way anymore,” he says. But I wonder if it is not a very demanding job for the body, and if he will be able to do this until his retirement. He thinks so, because his body is less worn than experienced pruners. And I trust him, because I tell myself that with his pianist’s hands, he must be very meticulous.
As I announced to you last week, this column will take a break until the next one, which will be the last, when we are finally settled in the Usher house.