Moving forward means leaving things behind
The newspaper, it is said, is a mirror of society. When we look at it, we see a reflection of our world, our community, ourselves, and we don’t often like what we see.
Look into a real mirror and you might see, beside the eyes, crow’s feet that weren’t there yesterday. You might notice gray hairs and sagging jowls that seem incongruous to the youthfulness you may actually feel, or imagine. The front page just about any day contains images and information that can be just as surprising and disturbing.
Monday’s Observer-Reporter was no exception. It was all about change: some of it unwelcome, some of it inevitable.
Readers were alerted that St. Agnes Parish, barring an unlikely change of course, will close in July, leaving Richeyville without a Catholic church. Parishioners have dwindled to between about 65 and 80 – not enough to pay the bills or convince the Pittsburgh diocese to keep its doors open. St. Agnes joins a long list of small parishes that were forced to close or merge with other congregations. The reasons are many: a shortage of priests, an aging population, a declining birth rate and other social changes, to name a few. The news is understandably upsetting to those who were baptized in the church and saw their own children baptized, confirmed and married there as well. They’d like their church to go on forever.
“There’s only so much 60 people can do,” said the Rev. Edward Yuhas, the parish priest. “We’re a people of faith and need to move forward.”
Moving forward, of course, means leaving something behind.
For Donora, that means the century-old bridge that connected it to the village of Webster on the other side of the Monongahela River. The deteriorating bridge was closed in July 2009, sounding the death knell for the already struggling borough. Most shops and businesses have abandoned Donora, and the last of its three banks closed in 2013. The bridge will soon be demolished, and the state is not willing to spend $25 million to replace it. Residents and the local businesses that remain look upon the bridge sentimentally and see it as the only slim hope of revival. The state takes a more pragmatic and realistic view: There are other ways to get across the river, and Donora and Webster have lost their industry, and with it their relevance. Frankly, they are not worth the expense.
Western Pennsylvania has many road signs designating villages where few or no buildings exist. These are places in which people once lived and worked but are no more, and they are part of our past only. It is possible that people could return to Donora, drawn by jobs in some unforeseen and future industry, but it is more likely that one day Donora will be replaced by vegetation, its story accessible only in archives and in brush-obscured ruins. This may seem sad, but the appearance and disappearance of towns is what has happened everywhere throughout human history.
Other changes were notable on the same page. This week’s Mystery Photo, dating to the late 1970s, showed a few things we have left behind – thick, wide neckties and Farrah Fawcett-inspired hairstyles. And then there was a “teaser” guiding readers to an article on an inside page that read, “Local physician starts concierge practice.”
Some of us remember the days when we could call our family doctor just about anytime, and that doctor knew our medical history and would actually make house calls. That all changed radically. Medical care became expensive, complicated and impersonal. Doctors now spend far more time on paperwork and with insurance-company employees than they do with patients.
Rebecca Plute is among a small number of physicians who seek change. Her Paragon Personal Health Care in Canonsburg aims to be a small practice, in which she can get to really know her patients and their needs. She’s even prepared to make house calls.
Change is neither good nor bad; it is what happens to everything. Learning to accept it makes life a lot easier.