Bob Gee grabbed a shovel and a 3-foot evergreen from the trunk of his gold Impala on Sunday afternoon at Roselawn Memorial Park in Little Rock.
He made his way to his brother's headstone in the middle of the cemetery and quickly dug a shallow hole, stuck the tree in, and shoveled the dirt around its trunk.
For the next 30 minutes, he turned the bare fir into a Christmas tree. He tied a big red bow to the top and then spun tinsel around it. He tied on some red and green bath sponges -- they looked like "big, fluffy ornaments," he said -- and finished with traditional red baubles.
Gee, 81, goes through the same ritual about this time every year, continuing a tradition his mother started 86 years ago.
Oliver F. Gee Jr., Gee's brother, died of pneumonia in March 1928 when he was 16 months old. During Christmastime later that year, his then-27-year-old mother, Daisy Gee, took a tree to his grave site from their home in Stifft Station.
"It was important to her because it was her first son, her first child," Gee said. "It was always a part of Christmas to come here and put the tree up."
Oliver would've been the oldest of the Gee boys. On Jan. 1, 1929, only days after Daisy Gee placed the first tree at her son's grave, she had another son, Bill. Bob was born in 1933, and then Jim in 1941.
Bob Gee said he helped his parents with the tree further back than he can remember. As Daisy Gee got older, the boys would set up the tree while their mother sat watching.
With only a few wreaths dotting the cemetery, the bright red-and-green tree gets a lot of attention, Gee said.
"The cemetery people look forward to seeing it," he said. "I have people out here who will walk over and comment on it and ask the story. I've met a lot of interesting people that way."
After Daisy Gee died in 1984 at age 83, her sons made two commitments to one other: They would hold annual family reunions, and they would continue to decorate a tree at Oliver's grave.
Bill Gee, who settled in San Antonio, died in 1990. Since then, Bob and Jim, both living in Little Rock, have continued the tradition.
Even in rain and snow, the brothers have kept their commitment, Bob Gee said.
"When she died, we decided it would be good to keep the tradition alive, never realizing we would still be doing it this far down the road," he said. "I would imagine as long as he and I are alive, it will continue. What will happen after us, I don't know."
Along with the tree, their mother always took a present to place on Oliver's headstone. All of the boys got toys for Christmas, Gee said, and Daisy Gee wanted to make sure her oldest son had one, too.
On Sunday, Bob Gee took from a plastic bag a small ceramic house with the words "Toy Store" above its door and placed it on Oliver's marker.
"I do that every year. It's part of the ritual, I guess," Gee said. "It's always different. Sometimes it's a toy, but it's always something symbolic of Christmas and of childhood."
Metro on 12/22/2014