It takes two hours to go by ship from Taiwan to the small island called Orchid Island in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The people on that island would come to St. Mary’s Hospital to see the doctors when they fell ill. Thirty years have passed. There is a health center in Orchid Island. And Mackay Memorial Hospital takes charge of the mountainous tribes. Yet St. Mary’s Hospital still takes responsibility for meal services and hospice care.

People in Orchid Island have their special ways of living and persistence. As a nurse Cherry remembered, a pregnant woman who was about to give birth refused to go up to the delivery room. Everybody was shocked and worried. But she said seriously to the doctor and nurses,” This is the way I used to give birth to babies.” We finally came to the awareness that she was already a mother of two children. Since such was the case, why did she come to hospital? How funny it was!

In 1980’s, the superintendent of St. Mary’s Hospital Sister Agnes McPhee, DC, frequently visited Orchid Island. People there called her Sister Ma. Sister Ma gave people clothes if they had none and treated their diseases free of charge. Even when the islanders came to the hospital because of sickness, she arranged the boarding and loading for them. But some of the islanders disliked living in the hospital. Sister Ma respected their way of living. She allowed them to camp under the tree in front of the hospital. It was an easy way for the hospital to take care of them. This is why there are often people camping in front of the hospital, cooking rice and vegetables. When flying fish season came, islanders presented them to the hospital. It was fun to see the hospital kitchen boil a pot of flying fish and the islanders under the tree boil anther pot of flying fish.

It is said that every time a Sister goes to Orchid Island, she will hear the islanders call her Sister Ma as soon as she gets off the plane. In their minds, every Sister is a “Sister Ma”. Sister Ma became a special symbol of love and concern for those islanders. “Sister Ma” made everyone who saw her think of St. Mary’s Hospital. (2007.05.18)