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THE ROSE JAN 7, 1919 – FEB 11, 2001
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THE ROSE JAN 7, 1919 – FEB 11, 2001
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| When I was a young girl in the late 1940’s, my mother took me to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Brentwood, California to visit the patients. |
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patients were there because they were wounded in the war and others were
victims of the times… patients who had polio. They were on their backs
in iron lungs, this big machine that was helping them breathe. I looked
up at them from my mother’s side and saw their eyes in the mirror that
was above them to help them see who came to visit them. To be there… to
see these frightening machines and all the strange noises that they made,
and seeing these sad eyes mirrored down to me, for the first time I understood
how fragile life really could be.
By taking me with her to see the patients, my mother helped me to see a part of life that I didn’t know existed. Because the memory of these patients stayed with me forever, my mother helped to build a foundation in the importance of reaching out to others by her example. |
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The Roses Project was named after my mother Rosemary. She opened the door for me to want to go out and help others. She was always interested in my brother Bob Quinn and I. She wanted us to be happy in what ever we did. I found my happiness in helping others “bloom” again. My mother died suddenly and I could not be there with her to say goodbye. We were oceans apart. I was in Maine and my mother in California. God was calling her home. She was the Rose… a beautiful Rose that had so many different colors and stood sturdy in the wind. In her memory I hope I can help many people before I join her in Heaven. -Her
daughter, Sister Pauline Quinn op
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