PELHAM — Parents and school staff are trying to reassure the friends and schoolmates of a 10-year-old trick-or-treater who was killed Saturday by a wind-toppled tree.
Christian Gualtieri was waiting at the end of a driveway on Fineview Circle for about 19 fellow trick-or-treaters, when the estimated 50-foot birch tree struck him at 6:35 p.m., Pelham police Lt. Gary Fisher said.
The accident took place about a quarter-mile from the boy's home at 12 Susan Drive. The immediate neighborhood, near Dutton Road and off Diamond Hill Road, includes large homes on spacious lots.
Neighbors of the Gualtieris were still stunned yesterday.
Joanne Anderson, who has three young children and lives several homes away from the family, said the neighborhood has been very quiet since the accident.
Anderson said Christian's mother, Lisa, is sweet and she would dress up at Halloween and was excited to see trick-or-treaters come to their house, inviting them inside.
"I feel really bad," she said. "We are praying for her."
Lisa Gualtieri and her husband, Chuck, have a second son, Charles, according to a neighborhood directory.
Two streets over on Peabody Lane, resident Bruce Jewett, a father of two grown children, said he imagines that parents have been talking to their young children about what happened.
"You'd have to, I think, say it's a tragic thing and nobody's fault," Jewett said.
Still, the accident was hard to fathom, he said.
A woman who answered the door at a Peabody Lane home with hockey sticks and bikes in the yard broke down crying and said she could not talk about the accident.
A neighbor, who lives two houses away from the Gualtieris and did not want to identify himself, said he explained the accident to his 13-year-old son.
The boy was upset and brought flowers to a memorial site, he said.
Yesterday, neighbors continued to leave flowers, stuffed animals and notes near the memorial at the stump of the fallen tree.
One reads: "We will love and miss you forever in our hearts Christian."
No one answered the door at the Gualtieris' house yesterday.
Fisher said the Police Department has been in contact with a family friend who has been serving as an intermediary for the Gualtieris. The representative said the family is doing as best they can under difficult circumstances.
"It sounds like they want to keep this very private," Fisher said.
The lieutenant described the incident as "freakish," saying it was nobody's fault.
It appears the tree was rotten. Fisher said he had read of winds blowing from 30 mph to 50 mph that night.
Christian attended St. Jeanne d'Arc School in Lowell, a Catholic school for 461 children in prekindergarten through eighth grade.
Principal Prescille Malo said in a statement yesterday that there was no rational explanation for the tragedy.
"Christian was a compassionate boy who lived up to his name," she said. "His smile was contagious and affability was his trademark."
The principal's statement included no more information out of respect for the Gualtieris' "wishes to keep this event private."
Grief counselors were available for students at the school as they were at Pelham Elementary School.
Many neighborhood children, about 20, as well as Christian's Little League teammates, attend the Pelham school.
The district psychologist and two school counselors were at the school yesterday, Principal Alicia LaFrance said.
Five students talked to counselors, she said. One child who chose not to speak with a school counselor but will seek help from an outside counselor was a fourth-grader who witnessed the accident, LaFrance said.
LaFrance said children came to school yesterday like they usually would, ready to learn. She attributed this positive sign to the good job parents did talking to their children about the incident.
It is important for parents to talk to young children affected by such tragedies to reassure them. Young children have difficulty understanding why the boy wasn't protected from harm, LaFrance said. They, in turn, may feel vulnerable to harm, she added.
"I think with elementary children they become more frightened," the principal said.
She said counselors will continue to be available for students.
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