I answered our business phone one day several years back. The woman on the other end of the line was not happy! She asked me if I knew who she was, and said we had worked for them before.

“Your voice I know, but I can’t place your name,” I replied.

She gave me her name and I said, “Oh, yes. You’re the one with the big house at the top of that big hill with the long, curvy driveway lined with pin oaks.”

After a few words of “How are you doing?” and “How are things going?” she informed me that she was furious with her husband.

Remembering her husband, I could see why she might be unhappy with something he had done. He was a CEO of a large international company, a bit cocky and a know-it-all. I always let him go on and on, and then, when I thought he was finished, I would proceed to tell him what really needed to be done and how. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure he’s very intelligent in his field; otherwise, he wouldn’t be running a company and pulling down the big bucks.

She proceeded to tell me this story. “You know the big field at the back of our property along the edge of the woods with the big tree? Well, he decided not to call you and to trim it himself,” she said.

I said, “It doesn’t sound as though things went well.”

“You’re not going to believe what he did!” she said. “He took a ladder across the field, climbed that tree with no harness or rope and started cutting. Some time had gone by, and I hadn’t heard the saw for a while. I went out looking for him, and he wasn’t in the tree. He was lying on the ground moaning, doubled up in pain.”

In the end, her husband had a broken shoulder, a broken arm and two broken legs, causing him to be laid up for six months.

“I’m so sorry,” I said to her. “But why would he take a chance of climbing that high?”

“I don’t know, but it’s all over now,” she said. “Just come do the tree, so when he gets well he won’t try it again.” And we did just that!

Several months later we received another phone call, and guess who? He gave me his name. I pondered whether this was really who I thought it was, and asked, “Are you the guy who fell out of the tree and broke all those bones?”

“Yes-s-s,” he stuttered. “That’s me!”

I never know when to keep things in the back of my mouth. Instead, I had to ask him, “What were you thinking, and did you learn anything?”

“Yes, I learned my lesson, never again! I have a couple trees I need you to take care of.”

I jokingly said, “Would you like to come work for us, and we’ll show you the correct way to get into the tree?” He was laughing at that.

I’ve noticed over the years that some people just hate to admit there are things one cannot do on one’s own. Even knowing this, whether it’s an ego problem or the money, they are going to try to do it themselves. The funny thing is, it costs so much more in the end.

Whenever he would call again, I’d still give him a little dig about that accident, so as not to let him forget he could have died. And hoping he’d spread the word to others.

Marie B. Hawkins and her husband, Rodney Wright, owned and operated American Tree Experts Inc., in Loogootee, Indiana. They are now retired and still living in Indiana.