SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - Today is not the first day I spent with Chris the woodcutter. The last time we met he was single-handedly cutting down bug-infested dead trees on top of Palomar Mountain. But that wasn't the first time we ever met.
In fact, I used to see him daily in the early 1960s, when we were classmates at Brother Rice High School on Chicago's south side. We then went our separate ways.
"On my 18th birthday, I found myself in Vietnam. Then when I got back, I became a rifle coach and started going to Palomar College. Graduated from Palomar in 1968 and fell in love with the mountain and have been here ever since," Chris Marszalek said.
Over the years, Chris has carved his legend here. His gentle spirit and giving nature have endeared him to everyone in the area. The woodcutter's latest project is a gift to the valley -- a 300-pound sculpture.
"What this represents is the last grizzly bear that was in Southern California," he said. "The 2007 wildfire that consumed this place also consumed the tree."
That's another thing that Chris and I share in common. We both lost our homes on the same day in different wildfires.
"I am watching you reporting, telling that your house is in the background burning, and this is as my house was completely destroyed," he said.
Neighbors, along with volunteers from local churches, helped Chris rebuild his house. He didn't have insurance. Before I left, Chris let me sign the scroll that entitles me to take a whack at his bear.
"I'm not sure why we connect the way we connect, but we sure do," he said.
Along the serpentine road of life, fires burn and trees die. Friendships fade, but for a brief moment on a wintry mountain morn, we have touched each other's lives again.
