Still writing, still revising. But in the meantime, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has given me a beautiful gift — a glimpse inside the now-abandoned Our Lady Help of Christians. It’s sad to see something that was such a vital part of the community come to ruin like that. But the photography here shows how grand the church must have been. It’s even easier to imagine, now, what it was like when my great-grandparents walked under those arches. How my grandfather and his siblings must have strained their necks to look at the stained glass windows or follow the shadow of the sun across the pillars.
larabrenckle
In 2006, I began to make good on the childhood promise I made my Grammy. I would discover the truth about my Grandpa Phil's life. No one -- not my father, my aunt or my extended family -- could imagine the story I uncovered. This is the story of how one girl met the grandfather she never knew, and loved him even more because of what she found. The Ground Rules All photographs and research materials are copyright to their respective owners or Lara Brenckle. All blog copy, as well as the story of Phil Brenckle's life, is copyright to Lara Brenckle. All information here is presented in a journalistic format. Reactions are to discoveries made as I uncovered them. I reserve the right to revise and correct those impressions based on new material. Anyone having alternate theories is welcome to present them in the comments. Like any good journalist, I am always open to a correction. Corrections will be handled with a new post stating that it is a correction to previous information, but previous information may not be deleted. This blog is a record of a personal discovery and that path takes many, many turns.
findingphilblog 
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