“I cry when they pass, or when I am comforting the family. It’s normal. It’s human.”
She hopes that she can help them die with dignity. She has seen men and women too afraid to sleep, afraid that they won’t wake up. One man struggled to breathe at night, grunting in pain under an oxygen mask. He tugged at his clothing and yanked at the mask’s tubes. Full Article
A sister with the Servants of Mary, Socorro has spent many of her nights and dark, early mornings in the homes of the dying. Each night, a volunteer picks her up around 7 p.m. and drives her to her destination: a tiny stucco house just a few miles from the South Los Angeles convent. The sisters prefer to minister in patients’ homes, but also work in hospices, orphanages and hospitals. And when needed, they take care of their own.
Many of their patients are immigrants, others born and bred in Los Angeles. Some pray to another God or to none at all. To the sisters, it doesn’t matter. Afterward, she reaches into the leather overnight bag she brings to each home she visits. She pulls out a blood pressure monitor and wraps a cuff around Calderon’s skinny arm.
Minutes later, the nun and Calderon’s sister stand over her bed, heads bowed as they pray three Hail Marys. Yolanda Calderon kisses her sister on the forehead.