A tragic mom-to-be’s grieving husband broke down in tears today looking at the massive red oak tree that crushed his wife as she sat on a bench in a Queens park.
After laying a bouquet of flowers at the scene, Aleksandar Dikov recalled how a six-months-pregnant Yingyi “Angel” Li was eagerly expecting the birth of their child, a girl they were thinking of naming Christine.
“She was very excited. She was taking care of herself very well,” said Dikov, 20, who serves in the National Guard.
“We’d sit together and listen to classical music together for the baby. We’d read stories in Chinese. I’d talk in Bulgarian to the baby.”
Li, 30, was killed Sunday evening in Kissena Park, near the East Flushing apartment that she and Dikov moved into a week ago.
Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, said Li’s death was the worst of 13 tree-related incidents in city parks that his group has counted in the past eight weeks.
Parks spokesman Arthur Pincus called Li’s death “a tragic accident” and said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family.”
Pincus said the tree — which was about 70 years old — “is being thoroughly examined to determine more about its condition” and why it snapped about 8 feet from its base.