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| Michael and Nancy O'Donoghue nee Brown - St Gabriel's Cemetery, Hazleton, PA |
I've blogged about my cousin, Nancy O'Donoghue nee Brown, before. She was one of those dear cousins you meet online when researching your genealogy. You correspond, compare notes, and help each other as best as you can. We even met once. I still remember it fondly.
Shortly before I started blogging (almost 3 years ago now) Nancy died. She was killed by her husband and we were all shocked beyond belief. This doesn't happen to people you know. It's something you read about in other people's families. Her husband, Michael, was apparently seriously ill. He died almost exactly a year after Nancy and before his trial could begin.
This is one of those pieces of family history that I would love to know what happened...why it happened, but I would never seek to ask anyone in Nancy and Michael's family just to confirm or alter my own theories. Their children and grandchildren have got to be completely devastated and heart-broken. I'm sure they would prefer to remember Michael and Nancy with fond, loving memories. I'm sure they do. They deserve to.
I was upset when I visited Nancy's gravesite nearly a year after she passed and discovered that there was only a marker from the funeral home. No tombstone. I had spoken with the caretaker at Saint Gabriel's Cemetery in Hazleton, PA and he had told me that many people stopped by to visit Nancy and asked the same question.
I didn't make it home in 2012 so perhaps the tombstone was there then. I can only guess that perhaps the family knew in 2011 that Michael's end was near and they held off on placing the stone until after his passing. Either way I'm just glad it's there.
Rest in peace, Nancy and Michael.
