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Sisters of Mokama
The Pioneering Women Who Brought Hope and Healing to India
1 of 1 copy available
The never-before-told story of six intrepid Kentucky nuns, their journey to build a hospital in the poorest state in India, and the Indian nurses whose lives would never be the same
New York Times editor Jyoti Thottam’s mother was part of an extraordinary group of Indian women. Born in 1946, a time when few women dared to leave their house without the protection of a man, she left home by herself at just fifteen years old and traveled to Bihar—an impoverished and isolated state in northern India that had been one of the bloodiest regions of Partition—in order to train to be a nurse under the tutelage of the determined and resourceful Appalachian nuns who ran Nazareth Hospital. Like Thottam’s mother’s journey, the hospital was a radical undertaking: it was run almost entirely by women, who insisted on giving the highest possible standard of care to everyone who walked through its doors, regardless of caste or religion.
Fascinated by her mother’s story, Thottam set out to discover the full story of Nazareth Hospital, which had been established in 1947 by six nuns from Kentucky. With no knowledge of Hindi, and the awareness that they would likely never see their families again, the sisters had traveled to the small town of Mokama determined to live up to the pioneer spirit of their order, founded in the rough hills of the Kentucky frontier. A year later, they opened the doors of the hospital; soon they began taking in young Indian women as nursing students, offering them an opportunity that would change their lives. One of those women, of course, was Thottam’s mother.
In Sisters of Mokama, Thottam draws upon twenty years’ worth of research to tell this inspiring story for the first time. She brings to life the hopes, struggles, and accomplishments of these ordinary women—both American and Indian—who succeeded against the odds during the tumult and trauma of the years after World War II and Partition. Pain and loss were everywhere for the women of that time, but the collapse of the old orders provided the women of Nazareth Hospital with an opening—a chance to create for themselves lives that would never have been possible otherwise.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
April 12, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593553145
- File size: 269392 KB
- Duration: 09:21:13
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Narrator Laura Jennings recounts the story of the creation of Nazareth Hospital, a Catholic medical center that was established in the late 1940s in the impoverished village of Mokama in India. The author is an op-ed editor for THE NEW YORK TIMES, and her Indian-born mother attended the nursing school attached to this hospital. With a steady pace and conversational tone, Jennings superbly narrates an amazing story that sounds like a novel. Six nuns leave Kentucky and brave harrowing traveling conditions across India. In Mokama, they transform a warehouse into a thriving hospital that provides basic medical care and medications, as well as surgical services, to a community that previously had little access to such care. This well-researched audiobook will fascinate listeners. M.J. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine -
January 17, 2022
New York Times opinion editor Thottam debuts with a vivid and uplifting portrait of a hospital in the small market town of Mokama in Bihar, India, built in 1947 by a group of Catholic nuns from Kentucky. Looking for a “new role as women in the Church,” six nuns from the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth traveled to India, where the traumas of Partition and deficiencies in the healthcare system were causing diseases like cholera to run rampant. By July 1948, the nuns had built and staffed a 28-bed hospital; the following year, they opened a nursing school. Young Indian women, including the author’s mother, came to Nazareth Hospital because they wanted a life beyond what tradition typically offered. Though students didn’t hesitate to point out the racist attitudes of teachers and administrators, Thottam doesn’t linger on disharmony, preferring to focus on the hard work and dedication of all the women of Nazareth Hospital. She also doesn’t sugarcoat the stresses of missionary work, documenting how illness and exhaustion forced chief surgeon Mary Wiss to choose between her health, her medical career, and her commitment to the order. Full of complex characters and intriguing historical tidbits, this is a rousing story of hope and determination. Illus.
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