Catholic Health World

Sisters of St. Joseph care for their frail members

ST. LOUIS — In a sun-drenched nook of the Nazareth Living Center, Sr. Christine Looze, CSJ, is completing a 1,500-piece puzzle of a boat at sea. Her manicured nails slide a white piece of sky across the scene's border. Wearing a handsome blue sweater with matching earrings, Sr. Looze appears more spry than her neighbors at this assisted living and skilled nursing facility in suburban St. Louis. But that was not always the case.

"I had problems with my hip," she said. About three years ago, her third prosthetic hip was failing. To immobilize the joint, her orthopedist ordered a brace for her upper and lower leg. The two parts were connected by an inflexible rod and the apparatus kept her bed bound for five weeks. "I couldn't get up at all," recalled Sr. Looze. "I knew every day I was lying down I was losing a certain percentage of my muscles. I knew I was going down."

Elderly and weak, Sr. Looze felt dismissed by her doctor. But she had a fighter on her side — Sr. Kathleen Karbowski, CSJ.

Sr. Looze recalled Sr. Karbowski telling the doctor: "'I give you one week to have something done for her.' And one week to the day, the doctor set a date for my hip replacement surgery. She was very forceful and stood up for me when no one would listen to me," Sr. Looze said of Sr. Karbowski.

As director of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Community Life Program, Sr. Karbowski leads a team of 10 sisters and an associate whose full-time job is to tend to the medical, legal, social and spiritual needs of the 97 CSJ sisters living at Nazareth. Nazareth is sponsored by their order.

Members of Sr. Karbowski's team arrange doctor visits and shop for the brand of hand cream or other toiletry item preferred by a sister-resident. They plan picnics and excursions. And they tackle the tough tasks, like accompanying residents in a medical crisis to the emergency room and facing off against unresponsive doctors.

Sr. Karbowski and her team feel the sisters in their care deserve nothing less. The residents here have served in schools, hospitals and missions across the globe. Now, in their retirement, they have returned to the secure embrace of the family they joined when they made their vows.

"Sometimes when you walk into a senior citizen's room you forget that they had a childhood, that they had a professional life," said Sr. Karbowski. "And our sisters are well-educated. Many of them have their doctorate degrees. Most have their master's degree. And so when one of them has a problem — someone has been treating them like a child or has been disrespectful in some way — there is something in me that just wants to speak up and say, 'You know, sister has run a university or she has run a hospital. Will you just take time and listen to what she's saying? If she is saying, no she is not happy with that doctor or that medication, listen to her.'"

Located on an 11-acre campus, the 272-bed Nazareth opened in 1872 as a home for retired sisters. In 1992, it started to admit laypeople. The Community Life Program started in the 1960s. Members of the team are assigned specific residents to monitor, though each performs duties for the entire community of CSJ residents.

For instance, Sr. Monica Kleffner, CSJ, schedules all of the doctors' appointments and arranges for transportation. No one envies her that job.

Sr. Gretchen Wagner, CSJ, is the "mechanic," helping adjust beds and program televisions. Sr. Mary Louise Basler, CSJ, loves to organize field trips to state parks. One of the team is always on call to address any urgent need.

"What don't they do for us?" said Sr. Dorothy Scheidler, CSJ, who arrived at Nazareth six years ago after serving in a school in Indianapolis. "They are our family."

Indeed, the sisters and lay associate Sue Jones take on the role traditionally assumed by daughters and sons.

"There is a trust that builds up," said Sr. Mary Ann Boes, CSJ. "They know they can talk to you about anything. Sometimes the biggest part of what we do is listen."

The Community Life staff has all the legal rights of kin. Sr. Karbowski has power of attorney for resident sisters; the Community Life staff members are legal liaisons. However, Sr. Karbowski sees herself as an advocate, not a guardian. Many residents already have clearly expressed their wishes for their last days and their funerals.

"My philosophy is to say yes to whatever it is they want to do," said Sr. Karbowski. "They've given their lives. Let them have what we can provide."

Sometimes those wishes clash with those of the blood family. Sr. Karbowski recalls one family with a family history of dementia who wanted an autopsy of their sister's remains. Sr. Karbowski had to say no.

"I support science too, but she made it very clear she did not want that," said Sr. Karbowski. "I sat with the family and explained sister has been a member of our community all of these years, and I have to speak for her. Her brother the lawyer spoke up and said, 'This is true. The Sisters of St. Joseph are her family.'"

Beyond attending the resident sisters' medical and legal needs, the Community Life team members provide spiritual support. Even women who have devoted their lives to Christ can struggle with the prospect of death. Sr. Wagner leads a discussion group where sisters study spiritual readings and discuss their own mortality.

"Sometimes our ministry is to help those who find it very difficult to see those who are in the dying process," said Sr. Joan Kaucher, CSJ. "Some people want to remember people how they were. So you help them work through what they are feeling."

The St. Louis Province of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet funds Community Life. Nazareth nurse Barb Leveque said that every resident, nurse and therapist benefits from the team's service and clarity of purpose. The nursing staff meets with Sr. Karbowski daily to discuss which residents need extra care.

"All day, every day I turn to them," said Leveque. "Not only do they tend to the needs of the sisters, they tend to the needs of the staff and the lay residents. They are always helping someone. It is a beautiful example."

Copyright © 2009 by the Catholic Health Association of the United States
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