I thought that my voyage had come to its end
at the last limit of my power,---that the path before me was closed,
that provisions were exhausted
and the time come to take shelter in a silent obscurity.
But I find that thy will knows no end in me.
And when old words die out on the tongue,
new melodies break forth from the heart;
and where the old tracks are lost,
new country is revealed with its wonders.
Photos taken morning of 19 June 2025. A humid day with rain later in the afternoon.
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| William Shakespeare |
Two loves I have of comfort and despair, Which like two spirits do suggest me still: The better angel is a man right fair, The worser spirit a woman coloured ill. To win me soon to hell, my female evil, Tempteth my better angel from my side, And would corrupt my saint to be a devil, Wooing his purity with her foul pride. And whether that my angel be turned fiend, Suspect I may, yet not directly tell; But being both from me, both to each friend, I guess one angel in another's hell: Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
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| Sister Helen Morrissey, undated; photograph from Allan Hustak's At the Heart of St. Mary's, A History of Montreal's St. Mary's Hospital Centre, Vehicule Press, 2014 |
St. Mary's Hospital was founded in 1924 by Sister Helen Morrissey and Dr. Donald A. Hingston. First a 45-bed institution located at Shaughnessy House (now the Canadian Centre for Architecture) in the Shaughnessy Village neighbourhood of Downtown Montreal, it has since moved to its current location in 1934 where it has 271 beds.
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| St. Mary's Hospital, Montreal |
St. Mary’s Hospital, Montreal, Quebec (1924-1930); the following has been amended and edited:
Sister Helen Morrissey, R.H.S.J, was born into an Irish family, later she worked as a pharmacist at Hopital Hotel-Dieu, Montreal, and dreamed of founding a hospital to care for the English speaking patients as early as 1908. In 1924, with permission from Bishop Georges Gauthier, Archbishop of Montreal, Mother LeRoyer, her Superior and the support of generous benefactors, she left the Hotel-Dieu to establish St. Mary’s Hospital (50 beds) in the Sir Thomas Shaughnessy residence. She called on the Sisters of Hotel-Dieu, Cornwall, Kingston and Chicago to support her in this hospital apostolate. The community received novices. A school of nursing was opened. In 1930, following administrative difficulties and conflict with the board working to raise funds and organize the new much larger hospital, Sister Morrissey returned to Hotel-Dieu. St. Mary’s Hospital was then entrusted to another religious community. This was the first Catholic English speaking hospital in Quebec.
Sister Helen Morrissey was born 1862 in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. She died in Montreal on 09 April 1953; she was age 90 or 91 years old when she died and is buried in her family’s plot at Saint Francis de Sales Catholic Cemetery, Pickering, Ontario.
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| The James Morrissey family monument at Saint Francis de Sales Catholic Cemetery |
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| Grave of Sister Helen Morrissey |
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| Grave of James Morrissey and Harriet Willboughby Hardgrove, parents of Sister Helen Morrissey; these photographs are taken from the Find-a-grave website -O- An obituary for Fr. Martin Callaghan, appearing in The Montreal Star, published on 11 June 1915, notes that "His (Fr. Martin Callaghan's) brother, the Rev. Luke Callaghan, parish priest of St. Michael’s, was with him at the time of his death, as were his sister Mrs. Farrel, of Lachine, and Rev. Sister Morrissy, and assistants of the parish of Notre Dame." The family had a long association with Sr. Helen Morrissey, going back at least to 1915. It is Fr. Luke Callaghan who ended Sr. Helen Morrissey's control over the construction of St. Mary's Hospital. -O-
 Excerpt from St. Mary's Hospital, The Early Years (1987) by Dr. J.J. Dinan: Canon Luke Callahan (sic) was named by Dr. Hingston as the man who, through his intervention with the Archbishop during the 1929 closure, saved the hospital. Father Callahan (sic) had persuaded the Bishop to sanction the removal of Rev. Mother Morrissey and bring in the Grey Nuns. Many of the Irish clergy had been strongly in favour of turning over the hospital to Rev. Mother Morrissey or another religious nursing order. The community in general was dissatisfied with the doctor-dominated board and it was during this state of general discontent, that a new board of prominent businessmen and politicians was established prior to the first major successful drive in July 1931.-o- I recommend, as well, Allan Hustak's excellent At the Heart of St. Mary's, A History of Montreal's St. Mary's Hospital Centre, Vehicule Press, 2014.  |
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| Bust of Sappho, Istanbul Archaeological Museum |
Some celebrate the beauty
of knights, or infantry,
or billowing flotillas
at battle on the sea.
Warfare has its glory,
but I place far above
these military splendors
the one thing that you love.
For proof of this contention
examine history:
we all remember Helen,
who left her family,
her child, and royal husband,
to take a stranger's hand:
her beauty had no equal,
but bowed to love's command.
As love then is the power
that none can disobey,
so too my thoughts must follow
my darling far away:
the sparkle of her laughter
would give me greater joy
than all the bronze-clad heroes
An article on the BBC, "Is it better to Neglect Your Garden?”, suggests allowing "nature to take its own course". The whole article is of interest as it suggests the importance of biodiversity, which includes a variety of insects, weeds, and even urban wildlife, and the article goes in some depth on this subject. It even asks, "What if you just do nothing?", and just let one's manicured garden return to nature. This interests me but it would defeat the purpose of my garden; I need to cut the grass, using my push lawn mower, and cut grass allows easy access to the whole garden, especially for seniors, keeps the neighbours and one's family happy, and keeps the gardener busy and getting some exercise. I also need to do some weeding if I want to have as many perennial flowers as I have. To do nothing might reduce the diversity of flowers that I've planted over the years, which is part of a cottage garden; these plants have been cultivated for gardens that are maintained in a traditional way. A return to nature may end up being not having a garden at all; but raking and disposing of leaves in fall can also be limited and even eliminated. The author of the article writes,
While experts recommend doing a little less mowing and pruning in the spring and summer, it's also recommended to let some things pile up in the autumn, specifically leaves. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a non-profit organisation focused on the conservation of invertebrates, promotes an initiative called Leave the Leaves that advocates for this to protect insects that overwinter on your property.
I didn't discard the leaves last fall, I raked them onto flower beds, and, for the most part, they are no longer visible except around the hostas at the rear of the garden. They are excellent mulch and allowed my lavender, and other plants, to survive our particularly cold winter. My own approach to gardening is more aesthetic than anything, as it might be for most gardeners. I would like my own small, shady, garden to be as much a part of nature as possible. I welcome weeds, I welcome as many insects as visit the garden, I rejoice seeing birds, and I celebrate any wildlife that passes through the garden; a garden is a simulated return to nature that allows access for people to enter, sit and visit, or just walk through. An enclosed or walled garden is a private space for nature, usually in an urban setting, the more abandoned looking the better but not, in fact, abandoned at all. Gardening is more artifice than authenticity, as poets might say, although in poetry authenticity is better than artifice; living in the city some of us want to return to nature but just to neglect the garden ends up having an unusable and perhaps uninviting garden, and defeats the purpose of the cottage garden. Here are photographs of my garden taken on 10 June 2025; this is early June in Montreal's West End, still waiting for most perennials to bloom.
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| Note the decomposing leaves, raked in place last fall, in this hosta bed |
