At age 93, Helena Morton was still cutting her own grass at her Latrobe home.
At 102, nine years after her husband, John Morton, died, Ms. Morton broke her hip and moved in with her daughter, Wanda Evancho, and her husband, John. At 105, with her mobility ever-decreasing, she moved into Loyalhanna Care Center and became known to the staff as “Baba,” which is Polish for grandmother.
At age 109 — after living through the 1918 flu pandemic and two world wars and living a long, peaceful life mostly in Latrobe — Ms. Morton died April 12, 2020, at Loyalhanna Care Center. Her official cause of death was listed as COVID-19, though she was never tested, according to her daughter.
“The one thing I can tell anybody is that no matter what, whoever she met, they took a liking to her,” Ms. Evancho said. “All the residents in the nursing home would ask how ‘Baba’ was and say, ‘Give Baba a kiss.’ ... She was well-liked.”
Ms. Morton is survived by her five children — Ms. Evancho, of Latrobe; Richard Morton, of Marietta, Ga.; and Joseph Morton, Irene Solick and Donna Jackson, of Latrobe — 13 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her husband died April 1, 2004, the day before Ms. Morton’s 93rd birthday.
Though Ms. Morton’s actual cause of death is considered “probable,” what is certain is that she experienced a lot in her 109 years of life.
“My mother was a hard worker all her life,” Ms. Evancho said. “She raised us five kids. ... She was one of those people that loved kids, animals, her garden.”
Ms. Morton was born on April 2, 1911, in Poland. She and John were already married when World War II broke out in Europe and both were forced to work in labor camps. John toiled away in a logging camp while Ms. Morton worked the fields growing crops such as potatoes, beets and cabbage.
The two got through the war, reunited and came to the United States on Aug. 6, 1951, through a sponsorship with St. John’s Catholic Church in Latrobe. They settled in Latrobe, which is where they resided for the rest of their lives. Ms. Morton worked housekeeping jobs for “prominent families” in Westmoreland County, including for the Mellon family at the Rolling Rock Races in Ligonier, according to Ms. Evancho.
In her spare time, Ms. Morton was an avid gardener and would always give away the fruits of her labor during the summertime. “Even the animals would gravitate toward her garden,” Ms. Evancho said.
Four years ago, Ms. Evancho was forced to check Ms. Morton into Loyalhanna Care Center to ensure she had more professional care. She said Ms. Morton was “pleasant, active” in the nursing home, playing noodle ball and making friends with the aides. She would sometimes forget English terms and speak in Polish, creating a bit of a language barrier with the staff, but otherwise she seemed content with her life at the center.
The past month, though, was extremely hard for both Ms. Morton and her family.
“The hardest thing was not to be able to see her for the last month because the nursing home was locked down [due to COVID-19],” Ms. Evancho said. “Because she couldn’t hear very well, you couldn’t talk to her on her phone.”
Ms. Evancho said Ms. Morton exhibited symptoms associated with COVID-19 prior to her death. She said Ms. Morton had a fever of 100 degrees and, the next day, the care center called her to say that although her mother’s temperature was back to normal, she was having difficulty breathing and needed to be put on oxygen. Though she was never tested for COVID-19, she was considered a “probable” positive because of those symptoms, according to Ms. Evancho.
Ms. Evancho was told about all this April 10 and was able to put on protective equipment and visit her mother one last time. She stayed for a few hours, but Ms. Morton wasn’t really acknowledging her presence.
“She was looking, but it didn’t seem like she was responding to what I was saying,” Ms. Evancho said. “I would squeeze her hand, but she wouldn’t squeeze it back. I knew she was failing.”
At about 8 a.m. on Easter, Ms. Evancho received the call that her mother died. “That was her favorite holiday,” she said. “It just seemed so funny that she passed that day.”
Ms. Evancho also lost her brother-in-law, Robert Evancho, on April 8.
“It’s one of those bad months,” Ms. Evancho said.
Joshua Axelrod: jaxelrod@post-gazette.com and Twitter @jaxel222.
First Published: April 21, 2020, 10:10 p.m.