Abour 45 years ago, Douglas Saldanha's neighbour was unable to accommodate an eight-feet pine conifer in their verandah. As Saldanha had the luxury of a garden adjoining his home in Worli's Adarsh Nagar, his family purchased it for R250 to have it planted there. Along with his sister Twila, they were tasked with nurturing it and it grew to become more than just a tree. Every Christmas, the siblings would decorate either side of it. As the years went by, biology restricted ambition; their little hands could only reach so far up, leaving the top half of the plant undecorated. It still served its purpose but for Saldanha everything changed in 2003 — the year Twila was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

"My father had also been battling cancer at the same time. I quit my job as an architect to take care of him for eight months, and he went on to survive for 12 years thereon. But my sister passed away in 2005. She died in my arms, struggling to hold on to her life despite being sedated with morphine," Saldanha recounts. One of Twila's wishes concerned the tree: she wanted it to be decorated so well that it could be seen from heaven. And that's exactly what her brother has been doing since.