Meet Sister Rosemary

I grew in attentiveness to all the ways God accompanies me as I follow the longings I experience

Each morning the Lord awakens me to listen - Is 50:4. Many years ago, this passage entered my heart so that I grew in attentiveness to all the ways God accompanies me as I follow my longings. As I reflect back I perceive care and delicacy in this accompaniment and also amazing surprises.

A way to be present

As a young nurse I did not like the intensive care unit - too many machines. Yet I was responsible for visiting each night to verify that all was well. One night Mr. Bingham, clearly close to death, asked me to pray with him. At that moment I found a person in the midst of the machines and a way to be present to the situation. After all these years, Mr. Bingham, who died a few days later, is still with me as gift.

A special part of my life

This experience and others in which the human relationships seemed much more important than the task led me to dream of a palliative care service that would create a community of professionals and volunteers to meet the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of dying patients and their families. The group of people who created this with me will always be a special part of my life. And yet still I was waking each morning to listen and was being led to those who did not have the support our society has to offer when they are ill.

To call me forth

As I waked and walked on my journey, I learned that it was Haiti. Each step of the way there were people who made the impossible seem possible and who affirmed the path I was on. Now 25 years later, I am here in Cap Haitien, Haiti, Link to http://www.csj-to.ca/What_we_do/rosemary_fry.php waking each morning attentive to all the ways our God of mystery wants to be present to me, to call me forth, to invite me to fullness of life and to use me to do the same for others.

To read more Sisters' Stories, please see Meet A Sister