Jeannette community comes together to help girl who lost her mom
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When 9-year-old Trinity Koshinsky’s mom died unexpectedly this month at their Jeannette home, two Jeannette police officers who responded to the scene knew they had to help Trinity have a happy Christmas.
On Sunday, those officers led the way in their cruisers, lights flashing, so Santa Claus could make a special delivery. Pulling up to the North Railroad Street home in Penn where Trinity Koshinsky now lives with her grandmother, Janice, Santa hopped out of a Jeannette firetruck, bringing with him over 30 brightly wrapped presents.
“It’s insane,” said 61-year-old Janice Koshinsky. “The amount of people that have actually called me or messaged me and said, ‘We heard what happened, we want to help Trin for Christmas.’ … It’s amazing. I never thought it would be to this extent. It just shows how much she’s really loved and cared about.”
Trinity Koshinsky’s mom, 38-year-old Kristin Koshinsky, died unexpectedly Dec. 3 at her Jeannette home. While the cause of death is pending, Janice Koshinsky said her daughter had been battling an upper respiratory infection that was not related to covid-19.
Trinity was at home with her mother when Kristin started to feel faint. Her daughter checked on her three times before finding her unresponsive on the bathroom floor. After calling her grandmother to tell her what was happening, Trinity called 911.
“I don’t know what she said (to emergency dispatchers), but she was so calm and collected for a 9-year-old,” Janice Koshinsky said. “I couldn’t have done it, but she did. I got in there, and all I could see was my daughter lying on the floor. That’s something you never want to see.”
An EMT who is a friend of Janice’s pulled her outside, telling her there was nothing more they could do for her daughter.
A funeral for Kristin Koshinsky was held Dec. 9 at Calvary Church in Irwin.
Kristin Koshinsky worked as a day care assistant at Seton Hill Daycare. She was interested in musicals and loved to watch “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Wizard of Oz.”
“She could quote (‘The Wizard of Oz’) line for line,” Janice Koshinsky said. “She would do the motions to all the songs and everything. It was amazing. She was so good with musicals. She loved to sing. She had sung for a couple of weddings. She loved doing stuff with Trin.”
Trinity Koshinsky, wearing a shirt that featured a photo of her and her mother, said one of her favorite memories she has of Kristin is a wrapping paper fight that broke out after opening presents one Christmas.
Trinity, excited to break into the presents, said of the gifts, “I didn’t how much that would be, to take up the whole couch. We have a little bit everywhere.”
While Janice Koshinsky plans to let Trinity open a few before Christmas, she already hadopened one from Jeannette Mayor Curtis Antoniak. The gift was two stuffed panda bears, a big one and a small one, to resemble a mother and daughter.
“This is Jeannette,” Antoniak said during the event.
Trinity will have to wait a few more days to find out if she received some of the things on her Christmas list, such as a “Star Wars”-related Baby Yoda doll and LOL Surprise Dolls.
“She’s a rock. She’s a rock right now,” Janice Koshinsky said.