Terry Tuchnowski was touched by Lynn Semplice’s offer to let her be the first outsider to view images many are calling the Virgin Mary. ‘I have cancer, and when she saw the vision, she called me,’ Tuchnowski, Semplice’s next-door neighbor, said Friday. ‘I was the first person she thought of to come over and experience it and maybe be healed.’ Semplice didn’t have to make anymore calls. It didn’t take long for the word to get out and hundreds of people to make the pilgrimage to her home in Brookline. They’ve come to see images described as reflections of a woman wearing a veil in the attic of the house at 2070 Pioneer Ave. Tuchnowski, 40, who has known the Semplice family for at least 20 years, called the vision spectacular, moving and touching. ‘It brought a lot of people together,’ Tuchnowski said. ‘I saw people that I haven’t seen in years. A lot of sick people came and were able, I think, to feel better.’

The Rev. George Chortos of Our Lady of Loreto Church, where members of the Semplice family attend services, said he hadn’t seen the image. Chortos said he’s waiting to see what approach the Diocese of Pittsburgh will take. He called the Semplices good people who are active in the church. ‘They aren’t people who would go out on a limb trying to make things up,’ Chortos said. ‘I think they genuinely believe something is there. They seem like very solid people.’ Chortos said his main concern is that the image could be keeping people out of church. He noted that hundreds of people visited the Semplice home Thursday – Holy Thursday, the day commemorated by Christians for Christ’s Last Supper before his suffering and death. ‘Holy Thursday night is very special,’ Chortos said. ‘My concern was how many people were up there to see the image and didn’t go to church?’ He said, however, that ‘if it brings some kind of faith or strength, I have no problem with it – real or not.’ Tuchnowski said the image couldn’t have appeared at a more welcoming home. She said the Semplices are nice people. Lynn Semplice is a teaching assistant at Carmalt Elementary School. Her husband, Frank, works as a laborer. ‘These are generous people,’ Tuchnowski said. ‘The image could have appeared anywhere. But I don’t think it could have appeared in a better place.’ Neighbor Scott McConnell, 41, said the Semplices are the first people he and his wife, Brenda, met when they moved to the neighborhood five years ago. ‘They are down-to-earth people. This isn’t a gag or a hoax or anything. It happened. The kids are well-behaved and the dad’s a working guy. He’s like me. I don’t go for the supernatural stuff. If I hadn’t went up and saw when I did, I wouldn’t have believed it.’

Another neighbor, Carla Ayoob, 53, said she planned to visit Lynn Semplice to see how her friend was getting along. ‘I’m more concerned about her. If it was your house and you were leading strangers in and out, how would you feel about it• I don’t know what I would do in that situation, but I imagine she’s pretty tired. I think it’s great they are allowing people to see it. I guess they feel they should.’ The Semplices’ neighbors had their theories about what the image meant and why it appeared. McConnell said it was a reminder of the Crucifixion and the meaning of Easter. Tuchnowski said she felt blessed to have seen the image. ‘You know, if it helps one person see God through it or helps one person come to God, I think it’s worth it.’ Anthony Todd Carlisle can be reached at acarlisle@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7824.

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