Business owner cleans up Pasadena mother’s garden for free after storm

Pasadena, Texas – Pasadena crews spent Tuesday morning clearing fallen trees and debris along Elsa and Jean streets. Alongside them on Elsa Street is Robert Ebeck.

Mr. Ebecke is the owner of Gulf Coast Tree Removal Operations. He works outside, but he doesn’t get paid.

“At first, I came here because I wanted to do some business. I’m a businessman, but work is slow,” Ebecke said. “So, after talking to people, we found out that they were kind of strapped for money, so at that point we realized it would be better to do it as a good deed for them.”

Ebecke works at Tonya McGrew’s house.

Her carport and part of her porch were messed up around the magnolia tree in her front yard.

“It really looks like the wood opened up and held all that metal,” McGrew said. “There was metal everywhere!”

The single mother says she doesn’t have home insurance.

“I have no idea how much it’s going to cost, and to be honest, I really don’t know,” McGrew said. “We were reaching out to people to see if someone could come and get this metal from this tree before it flies off in this wind and hurts someone.”

KPRC 2’s Rilwan Balogun asked Ebeke why he felt he had to help.

“I’ve been through difficult times before, so I know what it’s like to struggle,” Ebeck said. “I’ve been homeless before. I came from rock bottom, but by the grace of God, I’ve learned to stay true to my faith and do the next right thing.”

The next right thing for him was to help McGrew.

Ebecke initially thought the job would take 30 minutes to complete, but because the metal was “twisted” around the tree, it ended up taking several hours.

“I just went in there and started cutting it out with a chainsaw and hands and feet,” he said.

By noon he was finished.

“It’s a tough world out there. We need more kind people in our world,” McGrew said. “This shows that we have good people with good hearts here. That’s what we need. We need to get that back.”

The arborist plans to return to McGrew’s home to better trim the magnolia branches.