The Ontario Mason: Death of Mother Teresa evoked strong memories for physician

Death of Mother Teresa evoked strong memories for physician
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Admin on 31 July, 2008 07:16:00
 
By Heather McCrae
Port Perry Star
When news of Mother Teresa's death broke, one local man was particularly moved
by her passing.
John Forster, a physi­cian at the Medical Associates in Port Perry, volunteered
his services in 1990 at the Centre for the Destitute and Dying in Calcutta, a
street clinic and leprosarium, founded by Mother Teresa in the early 1950s.
"I was pleased when I heard she had died," he said. "She had been ill for so
long and I was glad she didn't have to suffer any more. She died as she wanted
to die, surrounded by the people she loved."
Mother Teresa, 87, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, cared for the destitute and
dying for more than 50 years, devoting her life to helping the poorest of the
poor.
Dr. Forster says it was after reading the book City of Joy he became inspired
to forfeit his holidays to volunteer his services for 17 days at the Mother
Teresa Sisters of Charity in Calcutta.
When he arrived in February of 1990, Dr. Forster and other volun­teers were
given a briefing by the nuns about the work they would be doing. He was asked
to work in a street clinic.
The clinic, located by a railway station in Calcutta, was home for thousands of
destitute refugees. "They live on the tracks, the platforms and are the poorest
of the poor," Dr. Forster said.
"Poorest of the poor means they have nothing, in contrast to the poor who have
next to nothing," he said. "These people have no identity, no friends, no
health, no clothing and thousands of these people roam the streets in this area
of Calcutta."
At the clinic, where every morning at 8 a.m. with a prayer, language was a
barrier, but one that was overlooked. Dr. Forster, who speaks English and
French, worked alongside an Italian pediatrician who spoke his native tongue,
little French and no English, while a French doctor could speak some English.
The sisters spoke English, Hindu and some Bengali, the latter spoke by the
thousands of "clients" who visited the clinic every week. ...
Dr. Forster's work over­seas was a real eye-opener. The young and the old who
visited the clinic daily had tuberculosis, cancer, para­sites, ulcers, malaria
and the most dreadful skin dis­eases.
His afternoons were spent working at the Centre for Destitute and Dying.
"This was Mother Teresa's first love," he said. "The sisters would go out and
find people who were destitute and dying alone, then bring them to the cen­tre
where they would die surrounded by the compa­ny of fellow human beings, after
which they were given a decent disposal.
"It's a shocking place. These people have no iden­tity. They are hideously ill
from all sorts of diseases, yet it makes no difference what they are dying
from."
Dr. Forster helped wash and feed these people, giv­ing them comfort in their
final hours. Dishes were washed with ashes and water from a local well. Soap
was not available.
"I was asked to remove my stethoscope, as it would give people false hope," he
says. "I did things for these sick people I hadn't appre­ciated before as being
so important."
Dr. Forster recalled how, at the end of his first shift, he was reprimanded
severely by the Sisters for writing his notes in ink on a piece of paper: "The
Sisters gave me hell because I should have writ­ten in pencil so it could be
erased and the paper used again."
At the end of every day, Dr. Forster was emotion­ally drained from his ordeal.
"Your nerves are jangled," he said. When volunteers went back to the hotel they
would sit or stand for 30 minutes, med­itating in the Mother House. "That was
the most calming effect of the day," he said.
When Dr. Forster and the French pediatrician visited the leprosarium, they
traveled 40 miles by train to the village of Titigargh the home of more than
700 lepers. Surrounding this village, 25,000 inhabitants came for outpatient
treatment by six medical staff.
Leprosy is a devastating disease, not only because of its physical
characteris­tics, but because of its social consequences. "Your family
renounces you and you're cast on to the street until you cease to become a
person," Dr. Forster said.
"There were three points I was taught in medical school," said Dr. Forster. "I
was told we could cure sometimes, relieve often, and comfort always. I believed
then and now that because we have such faith and trust in modern technological
advances, we believe we can comfort always. The truth is we can't.
"But in our belief we can cure always, we have forgotten to comfort always.
Mother Teresa showed me what comfort really means."
Current Update:
V.W.Bro. Forster was twice Past Master of St Andrew's Lodge No. 560 in Ottawa
District No. 1 in 1979-80 and 2006-7 where he has been a member for 41 years
and was their youngest Master in 1979-80.
He was Grand Junior Deacon in 1982  and appointed to the Board of General
Purposes in 1983. He was obliged to resign from the Board in 1984 after being
appointed Professor & Chairman of Family Practice at Memorial University of
Newfoundland. He subsequently served as Professor and Chairman for 10 years at
the University of Ottawa (John was living there when he went to Calcutta).
After a 5 year stint in rural practice in Port Perry he finished his career in
an underserviced remote area of Northern Ontario. Currently he works part time
doing home based Palliative Medicine caring for people who are dying at home.
This article was printed originally in the Port Perry Star where V.W. Bro. Dr.
John Forster was a practicing physician. He had moved there from Ottawa and has
since returned to Ottawa for his retirement. We would like to thank him for his
permission to reuse this article and wish him well in his retirement. A true
humanitarian &  feemason.