Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 3—The Georgia Bulletin, April 16,1981
r ____
Around The Archdiocese
^ ... „
TAKE ME TO THE FAIR - Heading for the
Marist Country Fair are (1. - r.) students R. J.
Stuermer, Leslie Jones, Steve Lezaj, and Maria
Callison. The event, filled with fun and prizes,
takes place Sat., April 25 beginning at 10 a.m. on
the Marist campus at 3790 Ashford-Dunwoody
Road.
Final Profession
Sister Lourdes Teresa
Toro, (right) who served
the Archdiocese of Atlanta
in the Spanish Youth
Services program, made
her final profession as a
Missionary Sister of the
Most Blessed Trinity at her
motherhouse in
Philadelphia recently.
Sister Lourdes entered the
order in 1973 from Puerto
Rico, and her bilingual
abilities have enabled her
to minister to
Spanish-speaking
communities in Los
Angeles, eastern
Pennsylvania, and Puerto
Rico.
Sr. Lourdes
Teresa Toro, M.S.B.T.
Shannon New So. Vice-Provincial
Redemptorists of the
Southern Vice-Province
recently elected Fr.
Patrick J. Shannon,
C.SS.R. (center) as new
Vice-Provincial. He will be
assisted by Fr. John
Cavanaugh, C.SS.R. (left)
and Fr. Michael Dillon,
C.SS.R. In the
Archdiocese of Atlanta,
Redemptorists serve
parishes in Lookout
Mountain and Fort
Oglethorpe.
Flint River Fest
Chairperson Carolyn Kula and her husband Bob (far
left) with parishioner Jean Worgo prepare for St. Philip
Benizi’s Flint River Festival to be held Sat., April 25 on
the church grounds in Jonesboro. The day will include
carnival games, a country store, pony rides, golf, and bake
shop. Y’allcome!!
1956-1981
Solid Silver
The Cancer Home
• BY MSGR. NOEL C. BURTENSHAW
•
• Sister Loretta and the other nuns at the Cancer Home
J will tell you it was nice to have their brand new building
• in December 1973, but they hated to see the old one
• torn down.
• “It held such wonderful memories,” said Sister
J Loretta. “It had served our apostolate so well and for so
2 long. And before us it was a house of service, too.”
• Sister Loretta Purcell came to Atlanta in April 1939,
• just one month after the Cancer Home had opened. The
• famous Atlanta center for incurable cancer had begun its
J ministry in a building that had once served as a Jewish
• orphanage. “The orphanage went back to 1870,” said
• Sister, “and it must have been a wonderful place. It
• closed about 1929, but Jewish people still come to see
• the place where they were raised. They remember it
^ fondly.”
• The sisters are known as the Hawthorne Dominicans
• but their official title is the Servants of Release for
• Incurable Cancer. One of the founders, Mother Rose
? Huber, opened the Atlanta Home in 1939 at the request
0 of Archbishop Gerald P. O’Hara. “The Archbishop had
• seen our work in Philadelphia,” said Sister Loretta, “and
• when he arrived in Atlanta, wanted a home here. We got
• lots of requests but since Mother Rose was from
2 Kentucky she was really pleased to open a foundation in
1 the South.”
• So on a spring day in March 1939, Mother Angela
• Bott and the first band of nine Dominicans arrived to
J begin their apostolate to victims of cancer, an apostolate
• that would become so famous throughout Georgia.
• “It looked like the home was sitting there waiting for
• us,” said Sister. “The dormitories became our wards and
J it suited us just fine. We even had enough room to have
m wards for black people. Segregation was the law and we
• had to obey it at the time. But we changed as quickly as
• we could. We have only one goal - to serve the victims
• of incurable cancer.”
2 And that’s how it all began for the Hawthorne
0 Dominicans -- service. Two young women who had
• witnessed the merciless savagery of this dreadful disease,
• around the year 1880, decided to devote themselves to
• its victims. Rose Hawthorne, youngest daughter of
0 American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Rose
• Huber, an artist from Kentucky, came together in a New
• York tenement to serve the dying victims. They had
• both watched close friends die and both decided to
2 reach out to cancer sufferers. Other women gathered
0 around them and the first house of their new order was
• set up in New York, near the East River opposite the
• Brooklyn Navy Yard. That was in 1890. Ten years later,
2 the Motherhouse of the community was set up in
•
Hawthorne, New York about 30 miles from New York
City. The work of the Sister Servants was spreading.
“We have a precise rule about our service,” said Sister
Loretta. “We accept only patients declared incurable.
Patients still under treatment or therapy cannot be
admitted to our Home. We do not ask any questions
about religion. All ministers and rabbis are most
welcome to come and minister to patients. We cannot
accept payment of any kind, nor can we accept
donations from the estates of those who have been with
us. Bequests are often sent from patients’ wills. We
always return them.”
Then how can the Home exist? “Without ever asking,
we receive contributions from the general public. They
are very good. For example, in the new Home we set
aside a place for a beauty parlour and someone
volunteered to come and pretty the patients for us.
Barbers take care of the men for us also.”
“And we have fine medical help,” said Sister. “We
used to have many doctors volunteering but we have
found it best just to have one. He accepts only a very
nominal fee for all his work. So many volunteer so often
and do so much - it is wonderful.”
But volunteers are only allowed so far. “The Sisters
alone must tend the patients,” Sister Loretta reminds us.
“ The helpers iron and clean and make bandages, but
only the sisters can directly tend to the patients. Male
.orderlies help with the men, but the sisters alone must
be at the bedside.”
The Cancer Home is down there, just a fly-ball
distance from the Atlanta Stadium and since March
1939, the Sister Servants have been involved daily in
bringing the tender ministry of a loving Savior to ravaged
bodies. Their only goal is to ease this final suffering and
testify by their lives and ministry that a new life is
promised.
When the new Home was planned in the early
seventies, some felt the Sisters and the Home should
move, like so many institutions, to the Atlanta suburbs.
But the decision to stay, on the site of the old Jewish
orphanage known and loved for its service, was firmly
made.
And how did Sister Loretta Purcell, from Long Island
(“it’s an island about 10 miles from .New York”) become
a nun with the cancer Sisters? “I always wanted to be a
Sister,” said this young at heart, happy and bright lady.
Any other reason? Really there are two. “When I was
16, my mother died of cancer. And then it was the Will
of God.”
In December 1973, the new Diocese of Atlanta was
17 years old, the new Cancer Home was opening and the
Sister Servants for Incurable Cancer had been in the
same place close to Atlanta Stadium for over 30 years.
Miracles On Butler Street
(Continued from page 1)
parents don’t understand
the more technical terms
and are afraid to ask
questions. So the social
worker has to serve as a
moderator.”
One of the most
important aspects of being
a social worker at Grady is
to act as a role model for
parents. Donna remembers
many situations where
extremely young teenagers
have become parents and
weren’t prepared to take
care of a newborn infant,
especially one with the
* difficulties of prematurity.
“We teach these parents
how to hold, feed, and
care for their babies. It is
very difficult to teach new
parents how to manage to
cope with themselves as
well as their child, who
might have a lot of
difficulties.”
There are mothers who,
after having their babies
placed in the High Risk
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Nursery, will literally
abandon them. “We’ve had
some mothers who won’t
come in to see their
children or even phone to
find out how they are
doing.” Sometimes a court
battle will result and a
baby will land in a foster
home. But most times,
Donna says, parents will
come to visit on a regular
basis. Some even drive
from miles away every day
just to be with their child.
“I’ve seen some parents
drive in every day from
another city or town to be
here. The expense really
mounts up for parking and
gas, and many people can’t
■easily afford that - but
they’re still here.”
Grady’s staff and
parents have formed a
group called THRIVE, a
High Risk Infant volunteer
effort. Within this group,
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parents serve to reassure
other parents. A family
who has had difficulties
with a premature child in
the past is sometimes
matched up with a family
who is now having the
same difficulties. They
meet with Donna and
other members of Grady’s
staff for learning sessions.
“Our goal is to make
THRIVE a statewide
program of all nurseries
for parents who are having
especially hard times,”
Donna adds hopefully.
As Donna sits in a tiny
room called “the office” -
the only room available to
counsel parents and allow
mothers time to
semi-privately nurse their
babies - she points at
snapshots of healthy-look-
ing toddlers who have
survived their many
difficulties at Grady. The
photos decorate a large
bulletin board directly
behind her. She knows
most of those little faces
in the photos by name,
and smiling, she proudly
tells story after story
about them and their
struggles for life in the
nursery. “Now when I sit
in church and see a
newborn baby baptized, I
think of the miracle of
life. But when I see a baby
in the nursery who’s not
even supposed to be born
yet - struggling to survive
in this world and making it
- I think to myself: ‘Now
THAT’S a miracle!’ ”
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Reservations A Must 939-8120 Ext. 165
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2180 NORTHLAKE PARKWAY
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939-8120
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and premature babies born all over the state are
often sent to Grady for help. But the nursery folk
need some outside help from concerned and caring
children for the walls and incubators, baby clothes
j n a
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the baby to help them remt
would like to help the kids
Carson (588-4924).
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(with prescription lenses)
• Eye exams by appointment
• Hard & soft contact lenses
Dr. M. Joseph
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VISIONS Norman Epstein
5191 Buford Hwy. (Pinetree Plaza)
452-1785
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