Hearts are heavy this holiday season, as Brooklyn mourns the loss of a community staple.<\/p>\n
Greg\u2019s Trees on Driggs Avenue and Lorimer Street in Greenpoint is still spreading holiday cheer, but this year the business is missing a \u201cbig\u201d part.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me chills thinking that it\u2019s the first year without \u2018Big Greg.\u2019 I miss him a lot,\u201d said Eric Kang, an employee at Greg\u2019s Trees. \u201cHe was a good friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family of business owner Greg Walsh, known to many as \u201cBig Greg,\u201d said he lost his years-long battle with prostate cancer back in May – on what was his 63rd birthday.<\/p>\n
\u201c[He was] my role model, and he was a true entrepreneur,\u201d said Walsh\u2019s 22-year-old son, known as \u201cLittle Greg\u201d Walsh.<\/p>\n
The retired special education teacher founded Greg\u2019s Trees in 1985 and expanded his business to six locations across the city.<\/p>\n
But some said Walsh was best known for his white beard and red Santa suit.<\/p>\n
\u201c[My dad] would try and wear that suit as much as he could,\u201d said \u201cLittle Greg.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBig Greg was the embodiment of Santa Claus,\u201d said Kang. \u201cHe was really generous. He was loving. He always had a smile and was making people laugh. He was a comedian.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cBig Greg\u201d was not only known for having a big personality and big heart, but he was also known for connecting with his customers and communities for nearly four decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loved the community,\u201d said \u201cLittle Greg.\u201d \u201cThe community loved him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walsh\u2019s dedication appears in an Amazon Prime documentary released on Dec. 1 titled \u201cThe Merchants of Joy,\u201d which features five families in the holiday tree business.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig Greg\u2019s\u201d message in the trailer video is less about the industry and more about life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me getting cancer to realize I should stop and smell the roses a little bit more,\u201d said Walsh in the Amazon Prime trailer. \u201cIt all comes down to nothing at the end, so you might as well be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
His words now sit on a poster at the register of Greg\u2019s Trees in memory of \u201cBig Greg.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hearts are heavy this holiday season, as Brooklyn mourns the loss of a community staple. Greg\u2019s Trees on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,12729,1840,2422,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-52328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-christmas-tree","tag-death","tag-greenpoint","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}