Out Of The Old Black Bag
OUT OF THE OLD BLACK BAG
New Relic Discovered in Troy Hill — Part 1
Musical Accompaniment: “You Were Meant for Me”, sung by Helen Forrest and featured in the sentimental movie, “Penny Serenade.” Music by Nacio Herb Brown with lyrics by Arthur Freed (1929).
The neighborhood of Troy Hill rests on a plateau overlooking the Allegheny River on Pittsburgh’s Northside; it is approximately 3 kilometers long and only 1 kilometer wide. In the center of this quaint village sits the Chapel of Saint Anthony of Padua which purportedly contains sacred relics, including the complete skeletal remains of a saint named Demetrius, a tooth of the chapel’s patron Saint Anthony, and a thorn from the true Crown of Thorns of the crucifixion of the Christ. All of the 4,000 to 5,000 relics in the chapel have original certificates of authenticity from the Vatican (the oldest of which dates from August 12, 1716), except for one which mysteriously appeared on the evening of March 10, 2023 — 102 and a half years following the birth of the village’s lifelong denizen, Lillian Abel Rausch.
“My mom Lillian and all of the Rausch’s love you!” I was told by a family member named Bobbie, who had married into my dear wife’s 12-sibling family from the North Hills suburbs several years after I had moved to the Steel City from the East Coast. “They all heard you say at the wedding at St. Anthony’s Chapel and afterwards at the reception that you thought that Troy Hill was a wonderful, quaint old town and a great place to live. Folks who grew up there or now live in Troy Hill must be very proud of the place and deserve to be there!”
Having been a sports writer in my younger days, I may have been guilty of some measure of exaggeration in my comments (or more likely had taken too many toasts of champagne to the newlyweds at the reception); however, I was working at Allegheny General Hospital at that time and realized that Providence had assigned the would-be saints of the 20th century to the “Hilltop Heaven” of Troy Hill and left the devil to do his own thing in the Northside.
Some blessed people look more beautiful in death than they or anybody else ever dared to in life, as if their inner being could no longer be airtightly concealed and emanates out of the body. I was absolutely convinced of this at Lillian’s wake at the funeral parlor just several blocks from her lifelong earthly home on a row-house-lined narrow street that terminated with a “tail” of downhill steps disappearing into the woods.
Here, Lillian spent most of her 102 and a half years raising a family of 5 daughters with her husband “Buck”, working tirelessly for the People Concerned for the Unborn Child and the Respect Life Foundation when the nest was empty, and spending her final years between reading voraciously in her living room parlor using a magnifying glass, praying daily among the relics of St. Anthony’s (a one mile walk) … and hobnobbing with yours truly at joint family events about the art of staying on top of things during the long life of serenity I coveted.
Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn’d to stray;
Along the cool sequester’d vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
— From “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by English poet Thomas Gray.
Actually, my interaction with Troy Hill over the past 40 years has been largely vicarious through joint get togethers between the Lyons and Rausch clans at my in-laws Aunt Bobbie (Rausch) and Uncle Eddie’s unpretentious little home on “Good Lane,” where every possible family event and holiday was celebrated, no matter how trivial the occasion. The highpoint of birthday parties was the singing of the Lyons birthday medley which featured the entreaty:
“We hope you live to be 100/ We hope you live to be 100/ We hope you live to be 100/ And then 100 more!! The decades of this tradition were to reveal that Lillian alone had this wish granted!
Part of the allure for the children was the 3-foot high above-ground swimming pool which infringed upon much of the correspondingly little backyard. Hanging in the living room was a plaque stating the family’s institutional motto derived from Bobbie’s Troy Hill connection:
“He who knows he has enough is rich!”
…as well as the “mission statement” that was adopted by our children and our grandchildren:
To be continued…
source https://www.thepediablog.com/2023/05/24/out-of-the-old-black-bag-45/
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