Generous gifts of time, talent, and treasure

What's In An Age?

St. Luke’s Eucharistic Minister Agnes Cassidy says she sometimes shocks patients when visiting them on her Monday rounds at the St. Luke’s campus of California Pacific Medical Center. “I might be talking to a patient who says that they are in their 70’s or 80’s and can’t do this or that anymore,” she says with a hint of a County Sligo brogue. “I ask them how old they think I am, and many of them are very shocked to hear that I am 100 years old. Then they ask me if I’m still walking even though they saw me come in on my own two feet.”

Agnes had never volunteered until she came to St. Luke’s over 10 years ago through a neighbor who was also a Eucharistic Minister. Agnes is great medicine for our patients, sharing her abundant kindness and playful wit with everyone she encounters. She visits approximately 50 patients each Monday, offering Holy Communion to Catholic patients, and visits anyone else who would like to talk with someone. “It’s very rewarding to visit the patients at St. Luke’s. When you come in the room, the patients just light up. People appreciate the handshakes and the hugs and ask me to come back.”

Because life is precious, we encourage giving to life and a lifetime of giving.