Great-Grandmothers Come to Blows as Twins Born

Shirley Irvin has been charged with assault and harassment, police say
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 13, 2014 9:25 AM CDT
Great-Grandmothers Come to Blows as Twins Born
A new great-grandmother ended up charged with simple assault and harassment.   (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Family gatherings aren't always harmonious, even those involving great-grandmothers in hospital maternity wards. In an Aug. 31 incident in Brighton Township, Pa., now coming to light, the grandmother (Shirley Irvin) of a father-to-be apparently overheard the great-grandmother (Carole Alberts) of the mother-to-be say something about hoping the twin babies would be OK; Irvin's vague comments to CBS Pittsburgh after the incident indicate Alberts may have said something about Irvin's grandson that Irvin believed to be untrue.

According to the police report, Irvin approached Alberts and they started arguing, at which point Irvin shoved Alberts. Police say Alberts' daughter then intervened, so Irvin swung a punch at the daughter, knocking out her cochlear implant, reports the Ellwood City Ledger. (Irvin, for her part, says it didn't go down the way the police report suggests, though she refused to elaborate.) The altercation prompted security to ask all three women to leave the maternity ward, and police were able to obtain surveillance video of the incident. Irvin has been charged with assault and harassment, and her preliminary hearing is scheduled for later this month. (On a more uplifting note, one teen took his great-grandmother to her first prom this past spring.)

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