President's Message 2016
Reunion: An Occasion to Reconnect and Celebrate Our Journey:
Marykutty Kuriakose
“It was magical”, said, Sr. Aquinas, who served us in India in different capacities in various nursing schools, after the 2015 September Newark, New Jersey HFMMIA reunion. “Felt so young again”, “Can’t wait for the next reunion”, are some of the additional reflections continuing to echo from the New Jersey reunion attendees.
Though I find it unnecessary to add my own descriptive remarks here, I must take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to the New York alumni who took charge of the reunion and coordinated the bus trips to New York Ground Zero Memorial and for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, that enabled HFMMIA to participate and contribute to the Apostolic Journey 2015 during the Pope Francis visit to America in September.
I also am immensely thankful to the Chicago, Philadelphia, and other state alumni who worked earnestly from distance to make the reunion a wonderfully festive experience. And to all of you who participated, helped and motivated others to attend and to those who could not attend, I acknowledge your collective spirit, thoughts, enthusiasm, generosity, and disappointments. I close this paragraph with an advance note of thank you to the Houston alumni, who boldly came forward with the willingness to host the 2017 HFMMIA Reunion in their hometown.
Looking back to many decades ago, most of us were teenagers or young adults in India when our parents sent us away to one of those esteemed Medical Mission hospitals for our nursing and other medical field vocational training. Majority of us who embarked on that new journey were also likely to be as young and as yearning as the teenage Independent India, looking for opportunities, guidance and directions to grow and prosper. While job opportunities for ordinary post British Indian citizens were scarce, for women, the situation was even worse. In healthcare, only the physicians were recognized as valuable lifesaving professionals, leaving nursing job as something inferior, insignificant and thus the profession to fend for itself. Therefore, those who chose nursing as a profession—predominantly women— took a huge risk when they went away from their homes to far away nursing schools.
Therefore during that grim era, we desperately searched for safe and reputable institutions for nursing and other medical field education and found the Medical Mission Sisters of North America who had come to India as missionaries and founded hospitals with nursing and paramedical schools in various parts of the country. When we applied, they happily accepted us—and many more afterwards—connected us with our first set of travel buddies-cum- classmates, gave us a distinct education along with confidence, language proficiency and experience that was unmatchable and would make us capable of acquiring dignified jobs and wages no matter what part of the world we went.
And now, several decades and thousands of graduates later, as we approach a different stage of our journey, we acknowledge that the fruits of the Medical Mission Sisters’ goodwill combined with our efforts have made us undeniably successful. And many of us have been living comfortably in the same land that the Sisters left behind to come to us and serve us. Time passed and the givers and takers of the opportunities got older together though vary in ages. Many of the sisters who taught us have passed away, and some of the graduates, too. The remaining sisters, all of them retired and quite elderly, some disabled, but all have come back from India and other countries to their Motherhouse in Philadelphia to spend their final years.
Having devoted their entire working years for the service and welfare of the less fortunate third-world citizens, we know that the Medical Mission Sisters forfeited their retirement income opportunities, too, in their native lands. So, what a well-deserved surprise they received when the 2015 New Jersey Reunion attendees individually and collectively opened their hearts and wallets to give them back generously! Months later, they are still beaming with joy and bowing with humble gratitude for the little generosity we expressed. But I know we gave them hope, too. On their behalf, I thank you all!
With warm regards,
Marykutty Kuriakose, RN, BSN, MBA
President, HFMMIA
Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi
Classes of Nursing & Midwifery, 1966-1970
Marykutty Kuriakose
“It was magical”, said, Sr. Aquinas, who served us in India in different capacities in various nursing schools, after the 2015 September Newark, New Jersey HFMMIA reunion. “Felt so young again”, “Can’t wait for the next reunion”, are some of the additional reflections continuing to echo from the New Jersey reunion attendees.
Though I find it unnecessary to add my own descriptive remarks here, I must take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to the New York alumni who took charge of the reunion and coordinated the bus trips to New York Ground Zero Memorial and for the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, that enabled HFMMIA to participate and contribute to the Apostolic Journey 2015 during the Pope Francis visit to America in September.
I also am immensely thankful to the Chicago, Philadelphia, and other state alumni who worked earnestly from distance to make the reunion a wonderfully festive experience. And to all of you who participated, helped and motivated others to attend and to those who could not attend, I acknowledge your collective spirit, thoughts, enthusiasm, generosity, and disappointments. I close this paragraph with an advance note of thank you to the Houston alumni, who boldly came forward with the willingness to host the 2017 HFMMIA Reunion in their hometown.
Looking back to many decades ago, most of us were teenagers or young adults in India when our parents sent us away to one of those esteemed Medical Mission hospitals for our nursing and other medical field vocational training. Majority of us who embarked on that new journey were also likely to be as young and as yearning as the teenage Independent India, looking for opportunities, guidance and directions to grow and prosper. While job opportunities for ordinary post British Indian citizens were scarce, for women, the situation was even worse. In healthcare, only the physicians were recognized as valuable lifesaving professionals, leaving nursing job as something inferior, insignificant and thus the profession to fend for itself. Therefore, those who chose nursing as a profession—predominantly women— took a huge risk when they went away from their homes to far away nursing schools.
Therefore during that grim era, we desperately searched for safe and reputable institutions for nursing and other medical field education and found the Medical Mission Sisters of North America who had come to India as missionaries and founded hospitals with nursing and paramedical schools in various parts of the country. When we applied, they happily accepted us—and many more afterwards—connected us with our first set of travel buddies-cum- classmates, gave us a distinct education along with confidence, language proficiency and experience that was unmatchable and would make us capable of acquiring dignified jobs and wages no matter what part of the world we went.
And now, several decades and thousands of graduates later, as we approach a different stage of our journey, we acknowledge that the fruits of the Medical Mission Sisters’ goodwill combined with our efforts have made us undeniably successful. And many of us have been living comfortably in the same land that the Sisters left behind to come to us and serve us. Time passed and the givers and takers of the opportunities got older together though vary in ages. Many of the sisters who taught us have passed away, and some of the graduates, too. The remaining sisters, all of them retired and quite elderly, some disabled, but all have come back from India and other countries to their Motherhouse in Philadelphia to spend their final years.
Having devoted their entire working years for the service and welfare of the less fortunate third-world citizens, we know that the Medical Mission Sisters forfeited their retirement income opportunities, too, in their native lands. So, what a well-deserved surprise they received when the 2015 New Jersey Reunion attendees individually and collectively opened their hearts and wallets to give them back generously! Months later, they are still beaming with joy and bowing with humble gratitude for the little generosity we expressed. But I know we gave them hope, too. On their behalf, I thank you all!
With warm regards,
Marykutty Kuriakose, RN, BSN, MBA
President, HFMMIA
Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi
Classes of Nursing & Midwifery, 1966-1970
