All care is personal and ought to be. The  Assembly has begun! Welcomed with the theme of Just Care…Vincentian Women in Action— the Ladies of Charity National Assembly delegates listened deeply to Dr. Marilyn Martone’s “up close and personal” keynote sharing of her 15 year journey as caregiver for her daughter who was in a vegetative state for 8 months and has had ten brain surgeries.

As she shared, just about every one listening related to their own personal struggles to be caregivers and the inevitable tensions in trying to balance priorities that women especially face.

But with an incisive mind she went beyond her own personal journey to raise profound questions about how caregiving is organized in our society, how  little support is given caregivers so that they can give the kind of personal caring that is necessary and yet unique to each situation. She expressed the hope that as the next two days unfolded the Ladies would bring  their sensitvity and creativity to addressing the issue of Just Care.

Fortunately she has put much of this into to her book  Over the Waterfall.

As Amazon puts it… “This book not only chronicles a family’s journey through the health-care system but because the mother is a theologian and professor of health-care ethics examines the ethical concerns that arise when dealing with brain injury. It also reveals a mother’s spiritual journey, which begins with facing the possibility that her child may die and continues into the world of disability.”

As LCUSA President Gayle Johnson commented it is a book the reaches deeply in the readers personal experiences.