Nuns at Idaho hospital make exit
Monday, September 8, 2008 11:24 AM PDT
IDAHO FALLS (AP) — In a month, the last of the nuns who helped run the Catholic hospital that became a large regional medical center in this Mormon town on the edge of the eastern Idaho desert will return to the Wisconsin convent they left behind four decades ago.
Sister Mary Boniface and Sister Mechtilde arrived in Idaho Falls with dozens of Franciscan sisters in the 1960s to work at what was then Sacred Heart Hospital. Now, they are heading back to the St. Rose Convent in LaCrosse, Wis.
Mary Boniface and Mechtilde, names given to them by the church, worked as an x-ray technician and pharmacist, respectively, and retired in the late 1990s. That was long after Sacred Heart had been purchased by giant hospital company HCA Inc., which closed the hospital in 1986 to make way for the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.
When the pair arrive at St. Rose, they’ll find just 300 nuns remain — well short of the 1,000 they left behind when they first made their trek out to the wilds of Idaho. Back then, the sisters lived on hospital grounds until regulations for Medicare and Medicaid, health care programs for the elderly and poor, forced them into the community.
‘‘It is rather serendipitous that we live on Grace Street,’’ Sister Mary says, of their current Idaho Falls address.
‘‘On the other hand, we lived on 25th Street for years, so I don’t know what that means.’’
Recently, hundreds of parishioners gathered at the Christ the King Church during evening Mass — to worship, then to honor the two women who wear matching medallions around their necks representing their home convent.
The sisters have lived together for nearly 30 years in Idaho Falls. Their chairs in the Grace Street residence face each other, not the television set. Religious symbols adorn the walls, accompanied by a picture of the Teton mountains on the nearby Idaho-Wyoming border.
A hummingbird flutters near one of six bird feeders in the backyard; binoculars are handy for a closer look.
Mary Boniface graduated from high school in 1948, Mechtilde in 1940, though neither offers her age. Those who attended the special event last week took time to share stories about the two, including a long-ago cooking class in the sisters’ home where parishioner Patty Kreigh remembers she earned a failing grade in pie crust.
‘‘It was not pretty,’’ Kreigh said. ‘‘They both felt that they failed.’’
Though Catholicism may rule in cities such as Boston, its members are in the minority in eastern Idaho where returned missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints are a common sight but nuns are a rarity.
The sisters say they have received some quizzical looks and lots of questions over the years. But because neither favors proselytizing, conflicts rarely arose, they said.
Some of their friends say that’s at least in part because of the nuns’ personalities and devotion to the community.
‘‘They totally embrace life,’’ said Kate Sica, who says Sister Mary taught her that love is the purpose in life.
Adds Heidi Gainan:’’ ‘‘They totally embrace the community. They never miss a thing.’’
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Information from: Post Register, http://www.postregister.com
