In celebrating it's Centennial year, Providence Everett Medical Center, recognizes its foundresses, Mother Gamelin and Mother Joseph. These dynamic women of faith and perseverance dedicated their lives to those in need. Their legacy provides the inspirational mission for Providence Everett Medical Center today. Here are their stories.
Triumph Through Trials
While the presence of Providence in Everett began in 1905, the story begins a century earlier, in Quebec, Montreal, with one woman’s vision and vow to simply care for and serve others.
Émilie Tavernier was born in Montreal in 1800. At age 23, she married John Baptiste Gamelin. Happiness was short-lived; her first two children died within months of their birth. In 1827, her husband died after a long illness, and a year later her third and last child died.
In her grief, Émilie Gamelin plunged into the work of the Ladies of Charity in Montreal, an association for the relief of the city’s poor. She came to see all the poor and needy as her new family, using her home and her inheritance to shelter the orphaned, abandoned or runaway children, the mentally ill, homeless, handicapped, immigrants, and destitute people of all kinds.
After working on her own for 15 years, Emilie and the Most Reverent Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, founded the Daughters of Charity, Servants of the Poor—known to all as the Sisters of Providence—on March 25, 1843. After pronouncing her religious vows on March 29, 1844, Emilie was appointed as the first Superior of the congregation.
The Sisters of Providence grew rapidly and achieved much under Mother Gamelin’s direction. She died of cholera on September 23, 1851. From her deathbed, she urged her Sisters to be ever mindful of the virtues she herself had embraced throughout life: "Humility, simplicity, and charity. Above all, charity."
Although Mother Gamelin founded the Sisters of Providence, it was another amazing woman—Mother Joseph—who brought the Sisters of Providence to the Northwest.
Pioneering Passion
Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart was born Esther Pariseau on April 16, 1823 in St. Elzéar, Quebec. Raised on a farm, the third of twelve children, Esther learned many skills through her rural lifestyle: sewing, weaving, carding wool, and caring for children. In addition, her father, an expert coach maker, taught his daughter carpentry and design skills that she later applied to construction of some of the Northwest’s first hospitals and schools.
Esther decided to enter the Sisters of Providence, where as a novice, she was trained in nursing in the Sister’s pharmacy and infirmary. Her sewing skills were utilized making robes, habits and vestments, and she learned to carve fine wax figures. She also assisted the treasurer with financial matters. Additional daily tasks included marketing, baking and the laundry. In 1845, Esther Pariseau took her vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and service to the poor, and received her name in religion, Sister Joseph.
In 1856, Sister Joseph led a group of four Sisters of Providence from Montreal to the Washington Territory. Bishop Bourget dedicated the new mission in the west to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and bestowed a new name on its young superior; Sister Joseph would be known as Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Under her leadership and trusting in divine direction, more than 30 hospitals, schools and homes were opened for orphans, the elderly, and the sick in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and southern British Columbia.
Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart died on January 19, 1902, at the age of 79. Her last words to the Sisters gathered around her bed were, “My dear Sisters, allow me to recommend to you the care of the poor in our houses, as well as those without. Take good care of them; have no fear of them; assist them and receive them. Then, you will have no regrets. Do not say: Ah! this does not concern me, let others see to them. My Sisters, whatever concerns the poor is always our affair.”
Hall of Honor
Mother Joseph’s contributions to education, health care, and the social services continue to be recognized a century after her death. In 1980, she was named as Washington State’s second representative in National Statuary Hall, in Washington, D.C. And in 1999, at the request of a group of Vancouver sixth-grade students, the legislature passed a bill declaring her birthday, April 16, as Mother Joseph Day in Washington State.
History of Providence Hospital
1856: Mother Joseph of the Sacred Heart and four other Sisters of Providence arrived in Fort Vancouver, Washington establishing the presence of the Sisters of Providence in the Pacific Northwest.
1905: The Sisters purchased Everett’s Monte Cristo Hotel for $50,000 and turned it into Providence Hospital, which featured 75 beds and a staff of 11 Sisters and three employees. Over 400 patients were treated in that first year.
1923: The Sisters of Providence borrowed $200,000 and built a new 126-bed hospital 32 yards East of the Monte Cristo Hotel site.
1962: Providence Hospital began Phase 1 of a 4-Phase, $14.5 million dollar building reconstruction project.
1965: Providence Hospital completed construction of a new service wing that included Obstetrics, Radiology and Dietary Services.
History of General Hospital
1894: General Hospital was founded by the Women’s Book Club of Everett. The cornerstone was laid in an existing building at 3322 Broadway. The site later became Bethany Home.
1923: A group of prominent businessman proposed to the community a plan to raise $150,000 to purchase a new site and construct a modern hospital. The $150,000 was raised in 7 days.
1924: The newly constructed General Hospital opened its doors and admitted its first patients to the 74-bed, 14-bassinet hospital in March.
1949: By converting the large sun porches on each floor into a six-bed wards, General Hospital was expanded to a 127-bed and 30-bassinet facility.
1965: Fundraising efforts resulted in $782,000 to build a seven-story Patient Care Tower, which housed modern patient rooms and a centralized dietary kitchen.
1990: General Hospital’s name was changed to General Hospital Medical Center to more accurately reflect its regional capabilities.
Providence Everett Medical Center
In 1975, General Hospital Medical Center and Providence Hospital began to consider a merger of the two institutions. An extensive study was undertaken to determine the future needs of the two hospitals, but no further action was taken until 1994.
1994: Exactly 100 years after the founding of Everett’s first hospital, General Hospital and Providence Hospital joined forces. The merger took effect on March 1, 1994.
Providence and General Hospitals became a new entity, Providence General Medical Center, under the sponsorship of the Sisters of Providence Health Systems. General and Providence joined forces pledging to focus on improving the health status of the community while maintaining the quality of care they so highly valued throughout their histories.
2000: In the year 2000, the hospital’s name was changed to Providence Everett Medical Center.
2004: Providence Everett Medical Center opened a first of its kind healthcare clinic. Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic was established to provide basic medical care for people in our community who have had difficulty gaining access to healthcare providers. Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic welcomes patients with Medicare, Medicaid as well as the uninsured.
Today, Providence Everett Medical Center serves patients from Snohomish, Skagit, Whatcom, Island and San Juan counties.
|
