Connections Fall/Winter 2010 (PDF) - Sisters of St. Joseph of ...

Walter & Priscilla Drake,
Webster Groves, Missouri
With two days’ worth of sandwiches
tucked away in the refrigerator,
sheets washed and living room dusted,
Sister Judy Obermark, SSND sits down
to relax and chat with Walter and Priscilla
Drake at their apartment.
It’s a familiar routine. For two years,
Obermark has served as a caregiver for the
Drakes.
“Our faith is very important to us.
Sister brings us communion every
Friday …and so you can see how
much Sister’s visits mean for us.”
~Walter Drake
“I come every Tuesday and Friday for
three hours in the morning,” she explains.
“I’ve come to know Walter and Priscilla as
friends.”
The Drakes remember fondly their
previous home in Webster Groves where
they lived for nearly 50 years, raising five
children and welcoming nine grandchildren
who loved to visit. “It was an old frame
home with 11 rooms and a one-acre yard,” Walter recalls.
“But it was the yard that did me in!”
Ten years ago, the couple decided to move into an apartment
nearby. Walter was 81 at the time; Priscilla, three years
his junior. As the years went by, managing even apartment
living became more and more challenging. Even with daily
visits from their daughters, the Drakes have difficulty keeping
up with cooking and cleaning and laundry.
“I heard about CSJ Care when I was in St. Joseph
Hospital,” Priscilla recalls. “I have heart problems and tire
very easily. It got to the point where I couldn’t even change
the sheets anymore. Our children don’t live close by and, of
course, are very busy with their own families.”
Beyond their gratitude for Obermark’s help with chores
and her friendship, the Drakes also express their deep
appreciation for spiritual enrichment they experience through
her presence. “I can still get to Mass on Sundays,” Walter
Walter Drake and his wife, Priscilla, are happy to be able to continue to live independently. “We
hate to see the people who are plucked from their apartment and have to go to an institution.”
notes, “but it’s usually too hard for Priscilla. Our faith is very
important to us. Sister brings us communion every Friday …
and so you can see how much Sister’s visits mean for us.”
Ruth Johnson, St. Louis, Missouri
Across town at the McCormick Place apartments,
87-year-old Ruth Johnson looks out the window from
an easy chair of her one-bedroom apartment. “Mr. Hollands
across the hall calls me the neighborhood watchdog,” Johnson
laughs. The 87-year-old widow says she looks forward to the
“companionship and conversation, the love and the concern”
that Sister Judy Bell, FSM shows her during their twice-aweek
visits. Johnson has lived at McCormick Place since
moving from her home about nine years ago. She has relied
on help from CSJ Care for about three years.
“It’s been a real joy for me to get to know Ruth,” Bell says.
“I started with Ruth in 2008. I’m a nurse by profession and
Co n n e c t i o n s • Fa l l/Wi n t e r 2010 9