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Homer Glen father tackles special woodworking project for his 3 daughters
Editor’s note: This is the fifth story in a series of how local residents are coping during the 2020 pandemic.
Several years ago, Robert Hafey of Homer Glen had to cut down an apple tree on his property.
Afterwards, Hafey saved pieces of the larger limbs and stripped the bark off to allow drying and prevent cracking. He then stored the limbs in his basement.
This wasn’t a random move. When Hafey was younger, he dabbled in woodworking, creating mostly songbirds and waterfowl.
“I carved all the feathers and detailed lines and painted them to look realistic,” Hafey said.
Hafey had a special project in mind for this wood – a special gift for his three adult daughters.
But Hafey never tackled the project until the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to pursue at-home activities.
Now this apple tree was already on the property when Hafey bought his house in 1974.
“It was a beautiful apple tree because it had a big trunk and then some really large limbs that came off at the trunk,” Hafey said. “And so it was easy for my daughters to climb.”
The tree’s unique structure made it the perfect background when Hafey took pictures of his daughters’ milestones: birthdays, first communions, Hafey said.
Blossoms appeared each spring, which was the “frosting on the cake,” he added.
“They grew up with the tree,” Hafey said. “As did I.”
But then the apple tree “started having issues with dead limbs,” he said. Removing them didn’t help.
“About 2016 or 2017, it needed to be cut down,” Hafey said.
Hafey told his family when they gathered at the house for Thanksgiving that year. Then he took his grown daughters outside to snap one last photo of them near the tree, he said.
When the apple tree came down, Hafey saved some of the limbs in his basement, where they sat for a few years, he said.
One day Hafey saw the wood and decided it was time. He carved an apple for each of his daughters from the wood of the tree that had provided many wonderful memories.
Hafey said he did all the carving by hand, except for some of the sanding.
“I had a power tool for that,” Hafey said.
Then Hafey contacted someone who did laser engraving to add, “You are the apple of my eye,” at the base.
“I also chiseled my name and the year on the side of the base,” Hafey said.
Hafey said he struggled against the grain of the wood write the curved numbers of “2020.” So he chiseled the year in Roman numerals.
“It was all straight lines,” Hafey said.
Hafey did present the apples to his daughters. And they were all touched to receive them, he said.
