I received fairly good care for a short time; then I was handed a picture of our suffering Lord, and told by the Mother Provincial, Sister Mary Theresa, to practice resignation and make novenas to this miraculous picture for help. (Novena means nine days' prayer.)
For years I was not sick enough to be confined to my bed, although I should have been there many times when I was drudging away, working for the Church of Rome. A sick sister need not look for any care until she is about ready to pass to the Great Beyond. The climax of my sickness came many years later when I had to submit to an operation.
During the first eight months I was at St. Vincent's Hospital, I had very little use of my left hand and arm. I thought it was partial paralysis. A very prominent physician of the hospital staff, whose name I purposely withhold, diagnosed my case and gave it a technical name, which my unintelligible mind could not comprehend. But in my presence he told Sister Mary Bonsecours, who was my officer and who had received orders to see what the doctor could do for me, that I would never be any better. Nevertheless, he prescribed for me which improved my condition to a certain extent.
In this condition I assisted in the caring of patients, doing the best I could, experimenting, as it were, and learning a little here and there at the expense of the suffering sick. We had no instructors or books on nursing until after I had been there about three years, when we were furnished one book, a manual of nursing, and whenever a sister was lucky enough to get it she would keep it until some other sister would have a chance to "swipe" it. A sister once "swiped" it from me, and it took me eight months to get a chance to "swipe" it back. Also, about this time we were allowed to attend certain lectures given by the staff doctors. One of the "certain" lectures we were not allowed to attend were those given on maternity, and yet the sisters were held responsible for any errors in caring for cases of this nature. To sum it all up in short, we were instructed to pray that God would bless us and our work and that nothing wrong would happen to the patients.
During the first six years of my experience at St. Vincent's Hospital and after I had recovered sufficiently from my sickness, I was sent to St. Mary's Hospital, Astoria, Oregon, off and on, for short periods to assist in the work there.
In 1895 the new magnificent, six-story brick St. Vincent's Hospital was finished, and we took charge in September of that year.
Here I had charge of ten rooms, and had the serving of two meals daily to the entire floor, which meant about fifty patients, and the only assistance I had was one girl who was neither sister nor nurse, but very good and kind to me. Besides these duties, I had to take my turn in the laundry, do sewing, and above all else, attend to the numberless religious obligations.
In order that you might realize of what these numberless religious obligations consisted, I will here give a program of the daily routine which I had to follow throughout my Sisterhood career:
| Rise at | 5:00 A.M. |
| Morning prayer, followed by meditation | 5:30 A.M. |
| Mass | 6:00 A.M. |
| Breakfast | 7:00 A.M. |
| Spiritual reading | 9:00 A.M. |
| Examination of conscience | 11:25 A.M. |
| Dinner | 11:30 A.M. |
| Beads | 11:35 A.M. |
| Recreation for one hour beginning at | 12:00 noon |
| Spiritual reading | 1:30 P.M. |
| Prostration | 3:00 P.M. |
| Meditation | 4:00 P.M. |
| Examination of conscience | 5:55 P.M. |
| Supper | 6:00 P.M. |
| Beads | 6:25 P.M. |
| Recreation for one hour beginning at | 7:00 P.M. |
| Evening prayer and examination of conscience | 8:00 P.M. |
| Followed by a visit to the blessed Sacrament in the Chapel. | |
| Retire—lights out and silence | 9:00 P.M. |