At 75, Millvale church murals gaining new admirers

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Here are the stories for this week's Pennsylvania Member Exchange package. If you have any questions, contact the Philadelphia bureau at 215-561-1133. For use anytime: EXCHANGE-EDITORIAL RDP Editorials from around Pennsylvania. For Saturday, March 5, 2015: EXCHANGE-UTILITY SERVICE CUTOFFS HARRISBURG — Robert Douglass, 38, still remembers the week that his Harrisburg home was so cold that his family couldn't shower. Although it had been nine months since their gas had been shut off, bathing, at least, had not been a problem for Douglass's family. Their water heater ran on electricity. But as temperatures plunged into the high 20s and low 30s in December, it became too cold for Douglass, his wife, or his mother to even step out of the shower. Douglass' two children, ages 1 and 5, went without baths for a week. "To get in a tub of hot water and then out into the cold, that's just asking for trouble," Douglass said. "Kids can't deal with that kind of weather." Last year, Douglass' household was one of more than 300,000 to have their gas or electric service shut off - part of an unprecedented surge in terminations across the state. Advocates say that the plight of Douglass and other Pennsylvanians has been driven by two major factors: a 2004 law change that made it easier for utility companies to terminate customers for failing to pay their bills and state policies that fail to adequately subsidize bills for the poor. Daniel Simmons-Ritchie, PennLive.com EXCHANGE-IN SICKNESS AND LOVE PITTSBURGH — The young groom paces in the sacristy. He adjusts his suit, which hangs loosely from his gaunt frame. A large binder clip — like the ones used to hold reams of paper together — cinches his pants at the waist, to make them smaller. The young bride pulls a shawl over her shoulders. In a room below the church, she giggles with friends and touches up her makeup. She looks beautiful, full of life and optimism, despite everything. Family and friends wait in the church. Luke Blanock comes into view, his bald head shining under the bright overheads. His limp is pronounced, but it's not nearly as noticeable as his smile. He takes his place in front of the altar. Natalie Britvich holds her father's arm. She feels weak. The groom wasn't thinking about the diagnosis of terminal cancer, with doctors giving him a year at most. All he could think about was the reception, where he would take his bride into his arms and dance. Chris Togneri, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. EXCHANGE-FLY FISHERMAN CARLISLE — Even now, at age 89, Ed Shenk is surrounded by feathers and furs. He looks across the upstairs room in his house in Carlisle and points to a trunk against the far wall. He doubts if he's seen the bottom of it in 25 years. A coyote fur, one of six he trapped on a farm years ago, hangs from a hook on the back of the door like a robe. Peacock feathers droop out of a vase. An animal skull sits on the top of a cabinet. A picture of his sister, killed in a childhood mishap almost 90 years ago, hangs on the wall. "This," he said, holding his hands outstretched, "is the accumulation of 70 years." Shenk is one of the last of his kind. "He's the top gun," said fly fisherman Joe Humphreys, who has known Shenk since the 1940s and worked with him at fly fishing schools for more than 30 years. "Put it this way, a lot of guys talk a good game, he is the game." Jim Seip, York Daily Record. EXCHANGE-MUSIC TEACHER'S INJURY STATE COLLEGE — She was hanging upside down. It was the first thing that Shannon Henry noticed when she regained consciousness behind the wheel of her Jeep Grand Cherokee, a stray observation that would turn out to be one of only a handful of memories that were not eventually diluted by blood loss or anesthesia. To truly comprehend the scope of the crash, you have to read the fine print. It's important to remember that Shannon Henry is the wife of a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve. It's important to remember that Shannon Henry is the mother of a 7-year-old girl. It's important to remember that Shannon Henry is a music teacher. Six months later, she still can't open a door with her right hand but she prefers to focus on the things that matter — her husband and daughter, the men and women of the 811th Ordnance and her eight private music students. Frank Ready, Centre Daily Times. EXCHANGE-CHURCH MURALS PITTSBURGH — As she grew up attending daily and Sunday Mass six days a week at St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in the 1950s and 1960s, Diane Novosel and her classmates were surrounded by paintings they found baffling and haunting. And no wonder. Of what they could see of the murals in the small, dim church, nobody ever explained what they were about. There was a devilish hand reaching toward a top-hatted capitalist; a maternal figure hanging crucified in wartime; a peasant Madonna who could be as comforting in her muscular embrace as she could be terrifying in shattering battlefield weapons. "I knew they were unique, I just didn't know the story," Ms. Novosel said. They're definitely on the map now, even if in an unexpected part of the map. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Croatian-American artist Maxo Vanka's completion of 25 murals that cover the walls and ceilings of the hilltop church in Millvale, a river town on Pittsburgh's northern border. Peter Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

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