A woman who was hospitalized after she took an overdose of pills during a break in a foreclosure hearing on her family's farm also was troubled by death and illness in her family, authorities said. Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg declined to release a condition report on Ida Depta, 48, of Alverton, but the family's attorney said she was in stable condition. Mrs. Depta was admitted Tuesday after swallowing unidentified pills from two prescription bottles in a courthouse hallway while foreclosure negotiations broke for lunch, said paramedic Harley Gray. The proceedings were then postponed. ``She stated to us that all she wants to do is to join her mom at the cemetery,'' said Deputy Sheriff Eric Sinclair. ``She's just upset over her mom, her brother is dying of cancer and the possible loss of the farm.'' Witnesses said Mrs. Depta's 18-year-old daughter, Julie, was able to remove some of the pills from her mother's mouth. The foreclosure, filed in 1985 by ITT Financial Services of Greensburg, involves a $111,251 debt by Mrs. Depta and her husband, Joseph Depta Jr., on a family dairy farm in Westmoreland County. The fact that she took the pills in front of other people ``tells me she wasn't so much trying to kill herself as she was asking for help,'' Ned Nakles Jr., the family's attorney, said today. According to Nakles and court documents, the foreclosure hearing was the latest in a series of woes for the family. Mrs. Depta's mother died on Aug. 24. Depta was injured in a 1984 traffic accident and has since been unable to work, which cut into the farm's income. The family also lost 18 cows when a cow bought from a supplier had a contagious disease that spread through the herd. The Deptas have taken legal action against the supplier.
