Mother Joseph's Drawing of the Infirmary Room


In January 1900, at the request of Mother Mary Antoinette, Superior General, Mother Joseph made this drawing of the room in which Mother Gamelin died. She wrote to Sister Rose de Marie, who was compiling the first full-length biography of Mother Gamelin: "I hasten to answer the request of Mother General who wrote me to send you without delay a plan of the room in which our Venerable Mother Gamelin gave her beautiful soul to God. I believe the enclosed sheet will suffice. I want to thank you, Sister Rose de Marie, for your devoted effort to glorify our Holy Mother Foundress."

The large room is the sisters' infirmary on the second floor of the Asile of Providence. At the top of the drawing are the stairs from the first floor, a bathroom, and the infirmarian's room. A hallway runs down the left side. The smaller rectangle at the bottom of the drawing represents the "place where rested the head of the bed of our venerated Mother when she expired." The original wall behind the bed was later moved inward to create an outdoor walkway to the chapel.

The original sketch, preserved in the Providence Historical Archives, Montreal, is the only known drawing by Mother Joseph.