One of the passengers involved in Wednesday’s crash involving Indiana Congresswoman Jackie Walorski was a Johnstown native and Graduate of Bishop McCort Catholic High School. The Bishop McCort community is now remembering her.
The Crusher community is remembering the loss of 28-year-old Emma Thomson, who was killed in a car accident in Indiana on Wednesday — while living out her dream of working in public service as a Communications Director for Indiana Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, who also died in the crash.
Mary Clare Piatak, Emma’s Former French Teacher saying: “I can honestly say that we at Bishop McCort knew that someday, we would be voting for Emma Thomson for major leadership positions in our country. Because she had a heart for everyone, for her classmates, and she had a heart for public service.” Mary Clare Piatak was Emma’s former French Teacher, and re-lived her memories of Emma with us while looking through her Senior Yearbook. Piatak saying: “Her quote is: ‘Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter,’ by Martin Luther King.”
Authorities changed their original statements about the crash, now saying it was Walorski’s SUV that crossed the center line, striking another vehicle head on — killing a total of four people.
Piatak says Emma was involved in National Honor Society, Blood Drives, Sports, and School Public Service and was an advocate for her Johnstown background while living and working in D.C. Piatak adding: “Emma was so tightly connected to McCort, and her community, and her friends. She was proud of her journey and where she came from.”
Piatak, in closing: “I have to say, on behalf of the entire Bishop McCort family, that Emma’s life is never going to end.”