Jul 12, 2009 2 min read

This letter is in response to a Bonnie Erbe article, which appeared in the Herald-Standard last April. The title was “Abortion is Not Always a Tragedy.” Unfortunately, the tragedy is when you tell young mothers to make excuses and rationalize their decision to end an innocent life. The economy and the inability to give her children what they need in life was a mother’s excuse for an abortion. Keeping up with the Joneses has no comparison to having a brother or sister for life.

Our maternal grandparents came from eastern Europe in the early 1900s. Our grandfather was a coal miner and he, along with our grandmother, raised eight children in a company house in a coal mining community.

Coal miners did not make much money then – “they owed their soul to the company store.” People like our grandparents were referred to as “patch hunkies,” a name they and others were proud of.

Our oldest uncle was born in 1914, and our youngest aunt in 1933.Our mother was born the fifth child, which by today’s standards and the philosophy of others like you, our mother would have not existed.

In addition to the eight children, our grandparents lost four other children. Three children died from childhood diseases and one baby at childbirth. God took them back to Himself. Our grandmother did not intentionally throw them away.

Our grandparents were great people; our father’s parents as well.

Like so many other people at that time, they had many hardships and had to do extraordinary things to survive. They led a simple life.

They were responsible for their actions and what was dealt to them, but they were also thankful for what they had. Their most prized possession, though, was the “Holy Fear” knowing God would provide for them and for their precious children.

Tom Palya

Sister Donna Marie Palya

Grandchildren of John and Mary Almasi

Uniontown