Massachusetts

Elderly Couple ‘Very Lucky' to Escape Injury After Tree Falls on House in Auburn

The home of an elderly couple in Auburn, Massachusetts, was damaged Monday afternoon after a tree fell and came through their roof amid strong winds.

"You just say to yourself, it could have come here," homeowner Bill Crosbie said.

Crosbie, 81, was sitting at his kitchen table when the incident happened.

"Crash. And I'm like, 'Jan you okay,'" Crosbie recalled.

A large branch had crashed through Crosbie's Rochdale Street home, with several smaller branches smashing through the kitchen ceiling — just inches from where he had been sitting.

"I swore a couple times, and the nuns I had in school will be mad, but I did swear," he said.

After checking on his 80-year-old wife Jan, who was safe in the living room, the couple made their way outside to discover a giant piece of a tree amazingly balancing over the entryway to their home.

"Guardian angel watching over us you know or something," Crosbie said.

As crews worked quickly to clean up the mess, the Crosbies' three daughters rushed over be there with them.

"(I) just burst out in tears. I mean he was sitting so close, it's kind of scary. We were all just together yesterday as a family sitting around the table," daughter Nancy Crosbie said.

The family said they're saddened to see so much damage to the home they grew up in — one that their parents have owned for more than 50 years.

"Even though it looks destroyed, it could have been a lot worse," daughter Stacy Crosbie added.

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