Laurel: To the value of a hard worker. Some people have plans to retire after 20 or 30 years on the job. Not Nora Morant. At 88, the Oakland woman has spent 70 years on the housekeeping staff at Charles Morris Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Squirrel Hill.
She is believed to be the longest-tenured long-term care employee in the country, and will be honored as such in October at an aging services conference in San Diego.
And she still isn’t looking to retire any time soon.
Laurel: To more mass transit. The state House Transportation Committee’s subcommittee on railroads is holding a hearing to discuss the possibility of adding another train to the route that runs between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.
“If we can improve passenger service in Western Pennsylvania, communities across the board would benefit,” said state Rep. Louis Schmitt, R-Altoona, subcommittee chairman.
Maybe the long-dangled high-speed rail service is a distant pipe dream, but this is not only doable but also much more immediate. It just needs everyone to get on board.
Laurel: To showing support for a supporter. Terry Ranieri had loved the Hempfield Area marching band for years. It is fitting that the band returned the favor.
Ranieri, 64, had been battling cancer. He recently came home from the hospital on hospice care. Friends and the community rallied around the family with social media and cards, but music has always spoken to the guy who would be at the field early to watch the band warm up.
On Tuesday, about 100 band members — plus family and others — showed up outside Ranieri’s Beacon Valley Road home to give him his own personal concert.
There has also been a petition to change Hempfield’s stadium name in his honor.
The show of love is a testament to Ranieri’s longtime love of the school district’s musicians. It also says a lot about the kids who appreciated his support and returned it.
Ranieri died Thursday.
