INCURABLE. SORROW AND SOLACE AT ST. JOSEPH'S HOME.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 131, 3 June 1904, Page 5

INCURABLE. SORROW AND SOLACE AT ST. JOSEPH'S HOME.

"I think you Jiave a marvellous pkctl Tho house is so clean, and everybody facems to be well looked after!" Thesa enthusiastic excltynations were made by an English visitor je»terday afternoon to Mother Mary Josej>h Aubert after am hour's inspection of the Home for Incurables in Buckle-street. The English visitor was followed by another, a lesident of Wellington, wb<» was accompanied by her eight-year-old daughter. "I havo been so much Interested, Mother, by my vit.it," baid tite Wellington visitor; -bin the Itttle childroa make tho saddest bight in the Home. There is a little jjiri upstairs like my Kiieeii !" Here the speaker he* child to her side us though &he nad beta tvt.^ed with a feeling of thankfulness that her little girl Was not as the two incurables xlie hiwl j.ust seen. Those that «re whole in body and health have much to be thankful for, and a visit to St.Joßephs Home far In« cumbles rouses the spirit of thankfulness a» no other medium in the ejty caii do. Onv wou'.a expect to nnd the motto ol such a refuge, "Abandon hop* all y« Who enter here!" But life is not so hopeies* as that, although there have been 33 deaths amongst the 79 patients admitted since the Home was established four ye*ni ago. "We havo sent incurables away cured!" tho large-hearted founder of tli« Home s>aid with a snule. is'ocessarHy there must be many dejtfhs in the Home, as only the absolutely inouraWe are udmitted. The patients — men, n-omejL, andl children, ranging in ngu fveu &£ to 73 years — come irom ail part* of tbe colony, and, as tlrey must also be destitute a* well as incurable, some of them arriva w-ith veiy little life or luq>e left in them. Cancer has been the mo#L frequent cauM| of deiUJi in tlio Home, aud the paMetul Sisters of Mercy have soofked and daily and nightly still sooth many sad hearts and pain-racked -bodies. There is only one caso Of cancer io the Home to-<say amongst thirty-tw patients. The most common dise&a© hi paralysis in its varied forms. 'JBhe women's quarters have always been fuMy occupied with patients, a gp«rc bed is frequently kept for »pectully aud or utgent cases in tiie men's quarters, and at all times since tho founding ol the Homa in 1900 there- have bcon two applications for every bed available. To-day tiie inmates include patients from Mercury Bay, Dun&din, New Plymouth, Ghristchußoh, Waiiiuwa, and Wanganui, as well as Wellington and its outer districts. On tha advice of medical men, from \rhom th* institution has at all times received nothing but kindness, Mother Aubert has had to refuse sufferers from consumption, asthma, and fits. Some forty to fifty epileptics have been amongst those denied admission. It would be neeeasarfi tv havb a separate building fot sucn cases, and one of the troubles of admin** istration is_ a debt of £3000 upon tb* Buckle-street buildings, including tha creche. Tho very saddest stories of how th« poor live may be heard in this refugfi for the hopeless. There is a wife in « distant part of the colony who by denying herself manages to save enough tai enable her to vi»it her husband at tfoa Home once a year. Tlwwe is an inniat* over fifty years of age, blind and crippled with rheumatism, whose wife has to vrork hard at the washfcub to keep herself and a family of small children. Not a few of the inmates are akme in the world ; aorao have frionds who visit them, th« institution practically keeping "open house" for visitors. There are eleven rooms occupied by patients, and a staff of nineteen has the eiute of the Honas and ita adjoining creche. "I have had an ambition all along," said Mother Auliert to a. member -of tta Post staff yesterday afternoon, "to get a separate ward for the children." This remark reminded the writer of the comment of the visitor about the sadness of the condition of the child pafcJeate -ot the Home. Listen to a brief rehearsal of cases of pathos and heartleeKneea. There aro two tiny tote of girls and tw» small boys iv the inst-itntioH. Bofch girii have been abandoned by their mothers, one of them left at the Hp,me whea tw« and a-half years of age. Strange to saj^, tiiree of these children are speeeUeas, and the other can scarcely make himseJl understood. They are also praoti««^l bedridden. The oldest boy, just on eleven years of age, has never walked, aud never will, his only relative ia,ti destituto grandmother who freqseatly writes him most affectionate letters front a di*»t«nt part of tbe colony, bat tbe h4 is as simple as a child of six. One q| the girls has a cleft palate and twie*ea foet, and the thrse-year-oM boy ib paca-lj-sed. He was adopted by a poor cbifctless couple who were deceived by tiios* from whom they reoeivod the child. Bui though the mite had to go to Home), his adopted mother visits him regutwdy and lavishes as much affection upon hem as though he was her ewn flesh aa& blood. Pity the sorrows of tbe destrtate^ stricken, and incurable!