Notre Dame Health Care provides care and compassion for 25 years

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – As Notre Dame Health Care celebrated its 25th anniversary Sunday, a sister who’s seen it from different vantage points recalled the nuns’ initial reactions to the new place.
Others who serve and are served there shared their experiences, the bishop praised the ministry there and another sister went further back in history.
Notre Dame Health Care is the umbrella organization of the facilities and programs at 555-559 Plantation Street, explained, MariAnn Paladino, director of admissions and marketing. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur acquired the property in 1900.
She said the facilities are now called Notre Dame Health Care Center, a nursing home and rehabilitation facility built 25 years ago, and Notre Dame du Lac Assisted Living, the sisters’ former convent.
The programs, headquartered in the assisted living building, are Notre Dame Hospice and Pediatric Palliative Care, which serve people wherever they live, and The Educational Bridge Center. The Bridge Center offers GED, ESL and citizenship classes, tutoring and help with educational scholarships, Miss Paladino said.
Preaching at the anniversary Mass, Bishop McManus said the works of mercy “have taken on flesh and blood” through the sisters and their collaborators. He noted that the Catholic faith says all people are made in God’s image and likeness, and their dignity cannot be taken away even by age, sickness, emotional problems or psychological challenges.
“For 25 years that dignity has been recognized, celebrated and cared for” at Notre Dame, he said.
He said he prays that Notre Dame will flourish and all who come will see the beautiful face of Jesus, revealed by those who take such wonderful care of the residents.
Two of the assisted living residents – Bishop Reilly and Father Andre N. Remillard – concelebrated the Mass with him.
After a cookout at Notre Dame Health Care Center, a resident there shared some of her memories with The Catholic Free Press. Sister Catherine Connolly is a Sister of Notre Dame who’s worn different hats.
She was superior at the convent in 1996, when the sisters welcomed the newspaper and other diocesan departments into their home after the Chancery flooded. She recalled sisters watching from convent windows as what is now Notre Dame Health Care Center was being built, and everyone saying, “It will soon be ours.”
“They didn’t think it was going fast enough,” she said.
When it was finally ready, they were wheeled down the hill in their wheelchairs, she said.
“There wasn’t a sound,” she recalled. “They were so excited.”
That was 25 years ago.
The convent was cleaned out, and in 1999 was turned into an assisted living center. At one point she lived in the assisted living place and worked at the reception desk in the Health Care Center, where she’s now a resident.
The sisters’ use of the property goes back way before those days. It had been a farm before they acquired it in 1900, said Sister Edie Daly, a member of the sisters’ province leadership team, giving a brief history at the anniversary Mass.
Since there was a clear view of Lake Quinsigamond from there, the Sisters called this place of rest and recuperation for their members “The Lake.”
The first sisters lived in an old farm house, Sister Edie said. In 1907 the convent (now the assisted living facility) was built.
In the late 1980s, Sisters saw the need for a more extensive health care facility, the long-term care facility was built and opened in 1993, and Notre Dame Health Care was founded. Lay women and men joined the sisters as residents and in providing care.
“This is a lovely place,” said MaryAnn Aijala, whose mother, Rosemary Pafumi, lives in the Health Care Center. “They all know her name. They all know my name.” And that makes a difference.
“I like it here; all the people that work here are nice,” said 11-year-old Emma Marini, who helped greet people at the anniversary celebration.
Her mother, Kimberly Marini, said she’s been working on the property for 27 years, starting in the former convent kitchen as a high schooler. She started at the Health Care Center before it even opened, setting up, and has worked in different positions in the kitchen over the years, she said.
“I met my husband here; he was my boss,” she said. And, when she gave birth to Emma, the sisters visited her in the hospital. She said she had brothers, but no sisters – until she came to work here.
“We’ve been here about seven weeks – we love it,” Dolores Bandas, an assisted living resident, said, speaking for herself and her husband. “It’s peaceful.”
“I think we’re different,” said Miss Paladino. “Our residents have a very good quality of life. They’re taken care of physically and spiritually. We have music therapy, art therapy and pastoral care, and that’s to meet people on their own level” and address their interests. “We find out who they are as a person.”