Feb. 18, 2015 By Deacon Kevin Mastellon Watertown - They sang, Now Thank We All Our God; they heard the history of a cherished and now gone institution; they prayed, “Loving God, we offer you our memories of the place we called Mercy, so dear to our hearts.” Former administrators and staff of Mercy Hospital in Watertown gathered at St. Patrick’s Church on the last Saturday of January for an evening Celebration to Honor Mercy Hospital. It was an opportunity for about 100 friends and employees of the former hospital, school of nursing and nursing home to reflect, to remember, to give thanks and to heal from a loss many of them take quite personally. The prayer service was led by the Rev. Leon “Toby” Schilling, who worked for many years at Mercy and now serves as Director of the Chaplaincy at Samaritan Medical Center. “A significant change has taken place in each of us with the closing of what we knew as Mercy Hospital; the demolition of the structure that housed that venerable institution,” he said. Mercy has been leveled. The footprint, almost a city-block square, will become a commercial and residential development. Additional remediation of the grounds and construction will begin this spring. St. Patrick’s is adjacent to the now empty hospital grounds. Mercy Sister Janet Peters, a former administrator of Mercy, offered a history of the hospital and other entities beginning in 1894. Following the service in St. Patrick’s, participants continued their prayers gazing out on the snow covered demolition debris. They prayed by candlelight from the parking lot of the Church. An organization called Friends of Mercy Hospital (FriendsofMercyHospital@gmail.com) has been formed and has as its goal to promote and advance what Rev. Schilling called, “the spirit of Mercy.” “We have come here for a special reason,” Rev. Schilling said. “Mercy has left a mark on our lives and so we move on” with a purpose to continue the Mercy Spirit.” Photo by Kevin Mastellon
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