Braves Sisters
July 10th, 2008 by Fr. Pius, OP
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne have as their apostolate the care of those terminally ill with cancer. Yet, how does a group of Dominican Sisters best known for the humble and prayerful way they’ve dedicated themselves to the dying come to be featured on ESPN? It’s a story of Christian devotion, Dominican sisters, and American baseball.
Making Time Stand Still
Story by Eric Neill
The full story (and video) can be found at the ESPN website
ATLANTA — At 7:30 each morning, Sister Mary Edwin pushes her pill cart down the parquet hallway of the men’s floor. Each drawer on the cart is marked with a name and room number. Dominic in 101 needs his heart medication and something for the pain. Sister Edwin grinds tablets with the back of a spoon and mixes the powder into a taste of applesauce. John in 108 needs some medicine put in his eyes. She squeezes a dropper and wipes his cheek. She writes everything down. One black pen (dosages) and one red pen (notes) taped together. She washes her hands in hot water after visiting each bed.
Sister Edwin moves from room to room, singing show tunes. She laughs the laugh of a right jolly old elf. She jingles her rosary beads the way a maintenance man jingles a ring of keys. She perspires at the lip and brow, hustling from patient to patient. “Is your sister back from Florida?” she calls to one. “How are you feeling? Did you watch the Braves game last night?” she asks, rubbing the toes of another. “Nice and easy, take it slow,” she says, cupping her hand behind the palsic head of a third, whose mouth has become too dry to swallow pills.
A Hawthorne Dominican’s apostolate dictates contemplation and service to the cancer-stricken poor. She does not proselytize or preach. Her faith is her work. She does not turn her back or recoil at the sight of suffering. Her faith is the touch of her hand, the comforting sound of her voice. The efforts she makes to know a patient, to be a friend in his last days, to soothe and comfort, are the terms of her devotion to God.
[The rest of the story can be read at ESPN.com]
