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‘Why I’m Thankful’ letters poignant

By Herald Standard Staff 5 min read

Without a doubt, these are some of the most trying times that many of us have ever experienced. The economy is showing little recovery as jobs are still hard to come by, especially here in Fayette County. And many of those who have jobs are working harder than ever before and in some cases earning less due to wage freezes and cuts.

You have to wonder if we’ll ever get back to the good old days of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when jobs were plentiful and times were good.

Then there’s crime, terrorism and other endless worries that keep you on edge day after day.

It all adds up to a pretty bleak picture.

But then I read the letters for this year’s “Why I’m Thankful,” which will run in our Thanksgiving paper, and once again I realized that things aren’t as bad as they sometimes seem and that, indeed, we still have many things to be thankful for.

For whatever reason, the response to the annual feature was phenomenal. If it wasn’t the best response since we started the project back in the early 1980s, it had to be right up there. And it wasn’t just the quantity, it was also the quality. I can’t remember ever reading so many heartfelt expressions of thanks.

In fact, we got so many letters that we weren’t able to publish them all for space reasons. But the good news is that we don’t have such restrictions on our website (heraldstandard.com) so you’ll be able to see all letters under a special section there.

We also received several nice family photos that we’ll be running with the letters. All in all, it should make for one of the most attractive and interesting “Why I’m Thankful” sections in quite a few years.

I urge everyone out there to take some time out of your busy Thanksgiving day and read these wonderful letters. Guaranteed, you’ll find yourself wiping away a few tears or getting a lump in your throat. Some you may never forget.

It’s not like any of these folks won the lottery or hit it rich at the Meadows. No, many of these people have gone through terrible things, particularly the deaths of loved ones, which I can identify with, having lost my father and a brother in the space of two months this past summer.

But like me, they were all sustained by faith, family and friends. And in the end, the letter writers show that with those three things you can pretty much get through anything.

As an incentive for people to send in letters, we always pick three winners and reward them with $50 gift certificates to a local supermarket. While we have no control over how the certificates are used, it’s our hope that they’re used to buy the makings for a great Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s always difficult picking the winners but it was really tough this year. There were so many wonderful letters that it was almost impossible to pare them down to three. But the ones we did pick give you a sense of what I’m talking about.

Margie Groves wrote about losing her dad to lung cancer and her mother, who was also her best friend, to a brain aneurism and then being diagnosed with cancer herself. However, she’s been “adopted” by friends and family members and is never alone at the holidays and on special occasions. She has faith that God will get her through whatever obstacles arise, and she’s especially grateful for a cousin Lynda, who gave her so much help this past summer.

Pat Hileman wrote about taking in her amazing father, who was 95 at the time, and what a wonderful time she had caring for him until he died. She’s grateful to God for giving her the health and strength to take care of her father, and she also feels blessed to have so many great memories of her late father.

Jennifer VanSickle wrote about how she had to watch helplessly as her house burned down on July 23 this year. Upset at first, she wrote about how she was thankful that all her family members made it out safely. She was also thankful for all the local firefighters who showed up at 5:30 a.m. to fight the fire.

Then, she watched in wonder as family, friends and complete strangers donated food, money, clothing and toys to help her family members get their feet back on the ground.

Many others wrote about facing similar hardships and not just surviving but thriving.

Maybe one of the lessons to be learned from reading the letters is how we take so much for granted until we hit some type of hardship and only then do we realize the importance of faith, family and friends in life.

But whatever lessons you learn, be sure to read the “Why I’m Thankful” letters in our Thursday edition. They will help you realize the true meaning of Thanksgiving.

Mark O’Keefe is the executive editor of the Herald-Standard. He can be reached by phone at 724-439-7569, by e-mail at mo’keefe@heraldstandard

or by regular mail at 8-18 Church St., Uniontown, Pa., 15401.

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