St. Mary’s Hospital, Paying it Forward

St. Mary's Hospital, 20 August 2014 

Walking down the hall at St. Mary’s Hospital, I said a silent thank you to Fr. Luke Callaghan for saving the hospital. Back in the 1930s Dr. William Hingston, who founded the hospital, asked Fr. Luke for help dealing with Sr. Helen Morrissey (no relation to me), the nun who had initiated the idea of a hospital for Montreal’s Roman Catholic population; however, Sr. Helen had her own rigid ideas of how the new hospital should be run, and she proved an obstreperous and formidable opponent as she alienated the all-male board organizing the new hospital. She almost derailed the hospital before it had even opened. As a last resort, and exasperated with Sr. Helen, Dr. Hingston called in Fr. Luke, who was the pastor at St. Michael’s Church in Mile End, to see what he could do about the situation. It was because of Fr. Luke’s intervention that fund raising and building the new hospital could proceed. Soon, the new St. Mary’s Hospital opened and it has been serving Montrealers of all faiths ever since.     

It occurs to me that at this time of the year, a time for giving and thanks, we might remember those people from the past who made our present lives possible. Fr. Luke Callaghan, who is also my great great uncle, helped pay forward the gift of St. Mary’s Hospital. This hospital saved my wife’s life ten years ago; my two grandsons were born here; and the doctors, nurses, and technicians at St, Mary's gave me truly exceptional care just three years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer, they saved my life. 

I would be a terrible ingrate if I did not contribute to St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation. I think of Fr. Luke Callaghan and the words of Dr. William Hingston, “In my opinion, Luke Callaghan saved St. Mary's.” Of course, Fr. Luke probably never heard of the phrase “paying it forward” and he had no idea that his intervention to save the hospital would also help his family’s descendants ninety years later, but that’s exactly what he did; we, too, can pay forward something of what we have received. Be generous, be giving, and pay forward what we have been given for future generations.

Notes: Quotation from Dr. Hingston is from Allan Hustak's At the Heart of St. Mary's, A history of Montreal's St. Mary's Hospital Center, Vehicule Press, 2014.

I also recommend Dr. J.J. Dinan's St. Mary's Hospital, The Early Years, Optimum Publishing International, Montreal and Toronto, 1987.