While Angel Interfaith Network focuses on "Celebrating What We Do Together," our annual benefit luncheon coming on Saturday, October 25th, our partners at L.A. County + USC Medical Center are in the midst of their long-anticipated move to new facilities. Now AIN is in the home stretch of its 20th anniversary year.
It has been a long time coming, but suddenly change is in the air. We see it also in the lives of patients and families served by AIN as they overcome stubborn obstacles to full recovery and reintegration to life in their homes and communities.
Note that word "TOGETHER" on the luncheon invitation below. Nobody knows better than we do that we don't accomplish anything in isolation. Chaplains, members of faith communities, social workers, administrators, medical staff, community partners. . . You are ALL part of the miracles happening in and around AIN. Join us next month as we enjoy celebrating the entire "heavenly host."
Rev. Donald L. Smith,
Executive Director
LAC + USC on the Move
 Some of you will remember the first AIN E-Newsletter in May, 2007 with a photo of a delegation in hardhats embarking on a tour of the new L.A. County + USC Medical Center facilities. (Click here for archive story) Few furnishings or carpets and no landscaping were in evidence then, but the promise that the gleaming new structure held was awesome enough at the time. At last moving days are underway with phased transitions of hospital departments from the 75 year-old landmark to state-of-the-art buildings next door.
Few remember now that actress Mary Pickford helped lay the eight ton cornerstone for the main hospital building on December 7th, 1930. A recent earthquake on July 29th was a reminder to all that the structure has been showing its age and is not up to current earthquake standards. The continuing importance of LAC + USC Medical Center as a linchpin in healthcare for our region was again evident as some of the most injured victims of the Chatsworth train crash were transported by helicopter to the hospital trauma center.
Father Chris Ponnet reports that our partners in the Department of Spiritual Care will be moving on Tuesday, September 23rd. Supervisor Gloria Molina will be touring the buildings on Saturday, October 4th. Patients will be moving in phases on Friday, October 17th and Saturday, October 18th.
On a recent tour by the Fall term Clinical Pastoral Education students, our AIN intern Francis Aguilar was most impressed with the robots. “State-of-the-art” at the new LAC + USC Medical Center means mechanized help for such routine functions as changing bed linens and transporting soiled linens to the laundry.
It’s a new day for patients and staff at L.A. County + USC Medical Center and for us at Angel Interfaith Network as well!
Caregivers Needing Care
 Ruth and Joseph came to the US as home care workers to help support their children and aging parents in the Philippines. Then unexpectedly, Ruth underwent cancer surgery. Joseph closed down their suburban apartment, rented a room within walking distance of the Medical Center, and found a job caring for an elderly gentleman. Ruth came home to a neat hand-lettered sign on a door leading into a small bedroom with two twin beds, a dresser, and a commode. After three surgeries, this room is still home, where she awaits Joseph’s return each day, to change her IV.
Ruth’s social worker called AIN to request periodic visits. Ruth is cheerful and gracious, but worried about the future of her family and about the bills that are mounting while she awaits a MediCal determination. She wonders if the next time they will be able to close up her intestine so she can eat again. She wonders if she will ever see her children again. She wonders if God listens to prayer.
Over the last several months, AIN has accompanied this faithful couple to MediCal approval appointments; visited in person and by phone; helped Ruth connect with the pain management staff of the Medical Center; provided transportation to medical appointments; sent food certificates for Joseph.
Recently Ruth said that she knows God listens, because AIN was sent to her. Her remark reminded us once more how crucial it is to our physical and spiritual well being to know that we do not walk the hardest parts of our paths alone.
Celebrating What We Do Together
Click here to download and print a luncheon reservation OR call AIN at 626-799-2858 to request a mailed invitation. Return completed reservation form with your check to Angel Interfaith Network, P.O. Box A, South Pasadena, CA 91031. |
