'Faith and resilience'
This past year tried even the truest traditions. Some of the traditions organizers adapted. Some traditions were canceled.
And some of them — like the Easter egg trees along Saxonburg Road — carry on.
Sisters and area residents Bonnie, Coralie and Allison Cahill hung 2,016 hand-blown, hand-painted Easter eggs last week on evergreen trees outside Bonnie's Saxonburg home.
“It (is) a testament of faith and resilience,” Bonnie Cahill said. “I just couldn't see not doing this because of COVID.”
The Cahills learned the tradition from their mother, Margaret.
Margaret, who died in 2019, taught her children about Easter egg trees in 1958 while living in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain. The Cahills' father, Harold, was in the U.S. Navy. This meant the family moved every few years.
After reading about Easter trees in Katherine Milhous' book, “The Egg Tree,” Margaret Cahill decided to establish a similar tradition to bring her children continuity.
“It was our way of saying family traditions matter,” Bonnie Cahill said.
Since then, the Cahills have been sharing that tradition with their community.
Bonnie Cahill, who also prepares taxes, said many visitors and clients see the trees as a seasonal sign for both Easter and taxes.
“I've had a lot more (client) drop-offs in the last week,” she said.
The trees themselves are a community effort. Bonnie Cahill said that each year she tries to buy leftover Christmas trees from local vendors. This year's three trees came from Sprankle's Neighborhood Market. Bonnie Cahill saved the trees for months.
“They actually look very, very nice,” she said. “They're very pretty trees.”
This year's trees are speckled with real eggs that the Cahills emptied, blow dried and painted by hand over the past 63 years.
The eggs were used in countless meals and never wasted, Bonnie Cahill makes sure to tell people. Many of the shells were painted by Margaret Cahill.
The collection includes more than 5,000 eggs. Normally, the Cahills display all of them.
This year presented its own set of challenges, though. Bonnie Cahill said the sisters have roughly 40 dozen empty eggs they weren't able to paint before Easter.
“We're going to work our way back up,” Bonnie Cahill said. “We hope to get them painted.”
Although the Cahills in the past have invited people to decorating events, pandemic safety has changed things,
Still, the Cahills welcome the community to see the trees, which will be up until about April 18. Visitors can drive by 1118 Saxonburg Road.
Bonnie Cahill predicts next year's trees will be even bigger and better, with all the eggs displayed in color coordination.
After all, Margaret Cahill started them for a very special reason.
“It's a mark of faith,” Bonnie Cahill said. “They are going to continue to go up.”
