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Nonprofit works to give special holiday to children who lost parent to violence

PITTSBURGH — This time of the year, many people are busy trying to finish holiday shopping or preparing to visit family.

But the holidays can be a difficult time, particularly if someone has lost a loved one.

That is the case for dozens of children in Pittsburgh who have lost a parent to violence this year, so a local nonprofit group is working to give them a special Christmas.

Patricia Marshall's Christmas tree doesn't have much on it, but it doesn't need to; she just wanted to have a place to hang 'one' ornament.

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"I found this ornament, 'To My Son With Love,' that brought such joy to me," she said.

It's been two years since she put up a Christmas tree; it was too painful after her son Mark Green was killed right before the holidays in 2015.

Like so many who have been victims of homicide, he left a family behind.

Marshall is now raising her grandchildren -- 6-year-old twins and an 8-year-old boy.

"They call me Mama, all my grandkids call me Mama," Marshall said.

It the sort of story Adrienne Young with the nonprofit the Tree of Hope has heard again and again.

"I would say 98 percent of the time, the grandmother has to raise these children, just like Kala Thomas," Young said.

-- she was shot in the head and her body was found over a hillside in Garfield. The young mother left behind two sets of twins.

Kala Thomas

"This time of year, it brings back to their memory that they have lost their parents. This is (the) time they feel the most loss and feel the most pain," Young said.

The Tree of Hope works to ease some of that pain, putting Christmas presents under the tree for kids who have lost a parent to violence.

There were 68 kids added to its list this year alone.

The Tree of Hope will provide presents to 350 children ranging in age from newborn to 16 this Friday evening.

If you would like to help them, you can drop off a new unwrapped toy or make a donation at Zone 5 Police Station until Friday, or at the Eastminster Presbyterian Church on Highland Avenue.