Trees to be planted in memory of late teenager taken from North Andover yard
NORTH ANDOVER – When Liz Moughan discovered on her home security footage that a box of planter trees left in the yard had been taken by a passing car, she says "it kind of felt like really just another big loss."
The small box of 25 saplings in the North Andover front yard wasn't meant for anyone – and it wasn't full of just any trees – but those to be planted in memory of Ty Moughan, who died just seven weeks ago.
Ty, just 18-years-old, took his own life on August 22nd after a decade-long struggle with mental health issues. He died overnight in the family home just one week before he was supposed to start college, leaving behind mother and father Liz and Josh, older brother Jack, and younger sister Viv. "
Ty struggled for a long time," Liz told WBZ. "I was never that open about it — we were never very open about it — because we felt like it was his story to tell, and our hope was that he was going to get better…as a mother and a father and a family that struggles with a son with mental health, it can be really lonely. You can feel lost, and you don't know where to turn for help because you don't know who is in the same boat as you."
Ty received help for years: through a hospital stay, years of therapy, and his supportive family. But eventually his grief became too much, as he explained to his parents in a note he left them when he died. "He said, in his note, he thought about [suicide] on Christmas morning, he thought about it when his birthday cake was in front of him," Liz explained. "And I just can't imagine what it's like to carry around that sadness for so long."
The family believes Ty had planned his death for some time, having shut himself off from family, friends, and work in the month leading up to his death. "He kept telling Liz that we will go back to school shopping on Wednesday. And he took his life on Tuesday," his dad Josh explained.
There was one place where Ty was happiest: outside. The Essex Tech graduate loved working with trees. He planned to attend UMass Amherst this year to study arboriculture and hoped to grow his business "Dudes Tree Care" with a friend upon graduation.
Ty ended his note by telling his parents to "plant more trees," and that's exactly what they've done in the seven weeks since his death. Unbeknownst to the family, Ty's memorial service actually fell on National Plant a Tree Day, September 28. Since then, they've paired with Little Saps to give "Ty's Trees" to anyone willing to plant.
More than 500 trees have already been planted in Ty's memory, from the Moughan's backyard all the way to California. The family documents the trees' planting on their Instagram page.
That's why it hurt the family so much when someone took a box of the saplings from their yard. "I mean, you can tell, [it says] 'plant a tree in loving memory of Ty,'" Liz said. "I think it's pretty obvious for most folks that they weren't there just to grab, never mind grab 25 of them."
"These trees are for friends and family to remember him by," Josh added. "And he has touched so many lives. His ripples go on forever."
The Moughans don't necessarily want punishment. They just don't want to see the trees go to waste. "It doesn't matter who plants them, or where they plant them, even if the person who took them wants to go and plant 25 trees," Liz said.
The Moughans have channeled their grief into planting the trees, and they hope to expand this effort to create a foundation to raise money for mental health research and resources. They hope when someone sees one of Ty's Trees, they are inspired to have a conversation about mental health.
"We can't get Ty back, but our hope is that maybe one less family has to go through what we are going through," Liz said. "I think there's a stigma, and not a lot of people talk about it, but since we opened the door for people to come to us, we are finding that a lot of people have similar stories."
