CARNEGIE, Pa. — A memorial of flowers and prayers are tied up against a light pole in Point Breeze. They are there to remember Vira Petrakh, who was walking to work when she was hit and killed by a vehicle.
Petrakh never missed church. She was always in the fifth pew. It is where she sat each week for the last two years since she and her daughter left from war-torn Ukraine.
Her fellow parishioners say she will be missed at this Sunday’s mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Carnegie.
“Even when she always didn’t understand my sermon in English, she followed along closer than the people who could understand my sermon,” Father Jason Charron said.
Petrakh worked as a housekeeper and had been running a few minutes late that morning.
“She was communicating with her homeowner who knew her very well and loved her and saying ‘I’m late’ and the homeowner said ‘Don’t worry. I know you’re good, Vira. That’s alright,” Charron said.
Her family and friends mourn her death. They hope to fulfill her last wish - to return to Ukraine where her husband and elderly parents still live.
“She missed her people, her land, so it’s only appropriate she be in the land she loved so much,” Charron said.
To help make that wish a reality — Father Jason has set up a donation fund for her.
It’s already up to almost 13 thousand dollars. A large portion of those donations — are from people who had never even met her.
“This is what Pittsburgh is. In tragedy, where this victim is from, they feel like she’s part of her town now, and that’s been the story. Neighbors coming out, eyewitnesses coming out, strangers, family parishioners...it makes Pittsburgh special,” said Charron.
Click here to donate to the fundraiser.
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