In our greatest need

Vanessa* carries something special with her every time she walks into the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. The NICU is where our city’s newest mortals, born early or with health problems, receive 24/7 care from teams of medical professionals, including Vanessa, a registered nurse. This is the kind of place where human beings routinely bear witness to some of the most powerful experiences life can offer. There, Vanessa has seen miracles happen. A faithful Catholic, she also knows that not every miracle ends with a baby carried home in the arms of loving parents. “You always pray for the best outcome, but it’s always in the hands of God.”

So, what does Vanessa carry that fortifies her vocation to serve one of the city’s most medically-vulnerable populations? Faith and experience, says the cradle Catholic, wife and mother. In addition to her nurse’s training, this front-line worker recalls what it was like to be cared for as a child prone to severe asthma attacks that kept her away from school and off sports teams. 

She remembers how medical professionals, doctors and two cousins who were nurses, sometimes came to her family’s home in India, which lacked public health care. The visits kept her out of the hospital, keeping her well without great expense. They also gave Vanessa a lasting appreciation for what it feels like to be cared for during some of life’s weakest moments.
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World Day of the Sick
Pope Francis invokes that same concept of selfless care for others in this year’s World Day of the Sick on Feb. 11. Writing to the faithful, Pope Francis reminds us that, when faced with “the needs of our brothers and sisters, Jesus asks us to respond in a way completely contrary to such hypocrisy. He asks us to stop and listen, to establish a direct and personal relationship with others, to feel empathy and compassion, and to let their suffering become our own as we seek to serve them.”

Working with the families of babies who have complex medical needs can be daunting, admits Vanessa, whose faith helps her focus on the task at hand. “My whole job is about taking care of people.” 

Eyes forward, in faith
The World Day of the Sick was instituted by Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1992. Celebrated on Feb. 11, the commemoration of Our Lady of Lourdes, the feast day is offered as a special time of prayer for the sick, including one’s own suffering. 
Ellen Dela Cruz experiences World Day of the Sick from the perspective of a mother and grandmother with a chronic form of leukemia.

Diagnosed in 2014, Dela Cruz found herself afraid and alone. Having moved to Calgary only a few years earlier, her husband and three children were in the Philippines. Physically and mentally exhausted by the disease, she was also fretful. “I was so worried. If I couldn’t work, how would I be able to bring my family to Calgary?” remembers Dela Cruz, a childcare worker. “When I am sick, I find myself crying and praying. Crying and praying. My family needs me.”

Overwhelmed with fear, she was also grateful for a health care system that gave her access to top medical professionals, including doctors who specialize in cancers of the blood. More than six years later, Dela Cruz says faith sustained her health and brought her family to their new home in Canada. Her family, which now includes her husband, three married children and three grandchildren, arrived in 2017. All four couples are committed to Couples for Christ.

Chronic fatigue and pain led Dela Cruz, who also has diabetes and fibromyalgia, to stop working in 2019. While she’s managed her symptoms without chemotherapy, she has been hospitalized with cancer-related issues and was to start treatment earlier this year. That plan changed when her oncologist noted positive changes in Dela Cruz’s blood work. Those changes were no surprise to Dela Cruz, who attends mass at several local parishes and loves to spend time praying the rosary in adoration chapels like the one at St. Bonaventure, where she heard “the voice of the Lord telling me the fire of my love will heal you. Every time I ask for the sacrament of anointing of the sick, my condition gets better, " adds a grateful Ellen.
*To protect her relationship with patients and their families, Vanessa asked that her last name not be shared. 

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A Prayer for the World Day of the Sick

​Tender and merciful God, you watch over your creatures with unfailing care, 
Keep us in the safe embrace of your love. 

With your strong right hand, make whole all who are suffering. 
Give them the strength of your power and the stillness of your peace. 

Minister to them through the compassionate service of others and heal their every affliction. 
Fill those who serve the sick with new hope and joy for the good they do in your name. 
Amen

Our Lady, Health of the Sick, 
I look to you for the comfort of a mother’s love, I pray to you on behalf of those who are suffering
And for my own healing needs.
Mary, your love strengthens me
And brings me peace. Pray for us,

​Amen.

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Written by Joy Gregory for Faithfully