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Family honors parents with library window
Tuesday, October 20, 1998 By Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Librarian Suzie Clark believes it may have been a greater power that
drew Harry "Buck" O'Hare into the high-ceilinged foyer of Andrew Bayne
Memorial Library one balmy Thursday in September 1997.
O'Hare, 46, of Cotati, Calif., had returned to his hometown of Bellevue
for a family wedding. During a walk in the park surrounding the grand,
120-year-old Victorian home that has served as the community library since
1927, he thought abot how to best honor the memory of his parents Mary and
Harry, who had died within 19 days of each other just nine months before.
O'Hare and his siblings had spent countless hours at the park and in
the library while growing up; placing some sort of memorial there seemed
apropos. But what?
"I was thinking maybe a brick in the sidewalk or a granite block like
those in front of the trees in Bayne Park, but everything seemed taken,"
remembers O'Hare, the oldest son and sixth of 10 children, all of whom
grew up on N. Sprague Avenue two blocks from the park. "So I decided to go
in and talk to the librarian and see if perhaps we could put a plaque on a
bookshelf."
As O'Hare was leaving, Clark turned to the left and looked up and
caught a glimpse of the large clear glass window in the stairwell leading
to the second floor.
The library had received two drawings for a proposed stained-glass
window for that site; perhaps he and his siblings would be interested in
contributing toward that?
To Clark's surprise and delight, O'Hare was interested. In fact, when
he suggested the idea to family members, they agreed a stained-glass
window was an excellent way to remember their parents.
Clark, who had resigned herself to "fund-raiser after fund-raiser" to
finance the project before O'Hare's fateful visit, said, "I was just
thrilled that afternoon. It was like the Holy Spirit was looking down on
us, finding a way."
Their dreams became reality when the vast O'Hare clan gathered Sunday
in the library to dedicate the completed window in honor of their parents,
born in Pittsburgh to families of Irish immigrants.
In all, more than 100 family members and friends, including nine
siblings and more than 20 grandchildren, were on hand to witness the
official unveiling of the window. It was installed in the library in June
and features a rendering of Bellevue's most famous landmark, the
110-foot-tall Lone Sentinel. The tree, located near the library, is
thought to be the oldest American Elm east of the Mississippi River.
"Friends jokingly used to say that Mary should be canonized for raising
the 10 of us," Buck O'Hare told those jammed on the staircase and spilled
into side rooms throughout the library. "And it's still true. All in all,
they did the best job they possibly could, especially considering the
resources they had ... they instilled the values of hard work, the
importance of family and friends and a willingness to help others, and
it's up to us to make sure our children end up with the same values."
The gift is a bittersweet one for Bellevue residents. This summer,
borough officials conceded that the 250-year-old tree is dying and must be
taken down for safety reasons.
"The timing of this could not be better," Mayor Paul Cusick told the
crowd. "We've been trying to come up with some way to memorialize the Lone
Sentinel ... this is something Bellevue should be very proud of."
Eileen Sporrer of West View, the youngest of the siblings, said, "This
provides a healing for everyone. It's a reason for us to come back to
Bellevue again."
Although Buck O'Hare had asked his brothers and sisters to contribute
toward the $3,000 cost of the window, his wife Laura had grander plans.
Pledge cards were mailed to nearly everyone in the extended family -
aunts, uncles, cousins, even old family friends. Before long, enough money
had been promised to pay for the window.
Contributors had been asked to vote on two designs created for the
library by stained-glass artist Nick Parrendo of Hunt Stained Glass
Studios in the West End. The winning sketch was chosen because of its
symbolic resemblance to the family name. A medallion surrounding the tree
echoed the "O" in O'Hare; the 12 leaves dotting the panels around the
border - each a little different - represented Mary, Harry and their 10
children.
The window, crafted out of blue, purple, rose, green and gold-colored
glass and located above the library's west entrance ("right across the
street from Dad's beer distributor - we had a good laugh over that," said
Buck) took Parrendo about six months to complete.
For the family, it was worth the wait.
"It's just so good to be together for a happy occasion," said Brian
O'Hare of Bellevue, 41, second to youngest. He recalled how the day before
the family had gathered for the wedding of his niece, Noralynn Jenkins, to
Tony Cutuli of West Deer. Noralynn is the daughter of Kathy Jenkins, 56,
of Ross, another O'Hare sibling.
"It's the most wonderful thing my brother could ever have done for our
parents. They were two of the most special people I've ever known," said
Bunny Hummel of Avalon, 45, fourth youngest. "I'm really jealous I didn't
think of it."
"It's really cool," agreed 12-year-old Laurel O'Hare, daughter of
third-youngest Daniel, 43, who made the trip from Petaluma, Calif. "It's
nice that everyone loved them so much that something like this could
happen."
Carrie Leana of Squirrel Hill, considered one of the "other O'Hare
kids" while growing up in Bellevue, lovingly recalled how Mary and Harry
had taken her in during her senior year of high school when her parents
moved out of town.
"What's so extraordinary about them is that they not only knew everyone
by name but what was special about them," she recalled. That quality, she
said, "was really a gift that was passed on ... whatever good I've had in
my life, they have a piece of that."
It was grandson Michael Sean Haggerty, 29, though, who brought the
house to tears with his heart-felt reading of Sheldon Silverstein's "The
Giving Tree," a children's story about a boy and a tree.
"Thank you for creating such a wonderful and lasting piece of art,"
Buck O'Hare called to Parrendo at the conclusion of the dedication, wiping
a tear from his eye and shooting a huge grin at the colorful window
towering above him. "I'm sure Mom and Dad are looking down at us and
really smiling."
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