As part of our summer in Washington each WIPper has to make a speech in front of an audience. This was not a prospect I was relishing but thanks to the help of Colm, Jonathan and Michael it ended up being one of the highlights of my summer. Below is a copy of it:
St. Paul once wrote, “Faith without good deeds is dead.” My name is Fiona Buggy and I am the daughter of a woman who definitely combines faith in God with good works on earth. Today I will tell you about how the values shaped by her strong Catholic faith complement my mother’s career choice, about our own family history and the motivation behind my hopes for the future.
My mother is a nurse in a Pediatric Hematology Ward in Belfast. The life and death nature of her work caring for children with cancer is a world away from my life as an English Literature student debating the merits of Shakespeare and Chaucer. However, despite its pressures, Mum loves her job and feels helping patients and their families in times of crisis is a privilege.
During her career in the National Health Service she has nursed people at every stage of life, from premature babies to those in hospice care, and every strata of society: leukemia does not know boundaries like class or religion. She believes that – at its core - a nurse’s job is to reassure. She says all patients, whether they are young children or senior citizens, have the same look of fear in their eyes when they are in pain. I believe that this is a poignant example of the truth proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” It is my mother’s job to try to remove the look of fear from their eyes. Nursing is not my vocation but it is through my mother’s example that I am reminded of my own moral obligation to look after the weak and the poor.
Mum began her nursing training in Belfast in 1976. She grew up in Portadown at the height of the Troubles and at the age of 18 had few Protestant acquaintances because she lived in such a divided society. However, early into her training she struck up a close friendship with a Protestant girl which continues to this day.
Why did this friendship work despite their differences? It worked because they rejoiced in their similarities. They did this in such earth-shatteringly simple ways as sharing a joke, supporting each other through their nursing training and shimmying the night away at dances. This is not to say that they ignored their differences – instead they chose to acknowledge and respect each others’ beliefs. When my mother stayed at her friend’s home in Ballymena for Saturday night dances both girls would get up on a Sunday morning and accompany each other to their respective religious services. I believe that a portion of credit for the peace in Northern Ireland belongs to people like my mother and her friend who went about making changes. Quiet changes. Small changes. Changes which we feel the benefit of today.
In the early 1980s a young man called Paul Buggy was badly injured in a car accident. He spent several months being treated at the hospital ward in which my mother was a nurse. The fact he ended up marrying her is only one of many testimonies to her competence.
However, mum knows that her own skills alone are not enough to ensure a patient is looked after well. She strongly believes that is only when nurses, doctors, cleaners and the whole hospital staff work as a team that high standards in a ward can be reached. Every person in this room has the capacity to make a positive and individual difference to their communities. That is not enough. What we are called to do is to come together as a team to transform the world.
My mother believes that the key skill a nurse needs is courage - a frightened nurse is of little help to a frightened patient. Courage is a quality which is evident in the story of the girl she was and the woman she has become. It takes courage to attempt to strive for excellence, to transcend divisions, and to take your part in a team. It takes courage to try and make a difference. It is because of my mother’s example that I intend to move away from the subject I love, English literature, and into the unfamiliar realm of public service as a career. Those involved in the WIP, SAWIP and the Catholic Business Network must also show courage as they look beyond themselves and towards the needs of their communities. In terms of our mission as a group I am reminded of the words of Nelson Mandela: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
Thank you.
