LETTERS: OLD HOSPITAL HOLDS MANY MEMORIES

To the editor:

As I gazed at the photograph of old St. Francis Hospital in the Southeast Missourian, so very many memories entered my mind. I am sure this holds true with many others, with each having his own personal relationship and feelings.

A hospital holds memories quite different from any other structure. There is joy. There is sadness. And there is tension related to this very special building that cannot be attributed to any other building simply because it involves a greater number of people.

So many people's lives began in this very special building, as were so many lost.

Often, people needed treatment in order to survive when St. Francis was the main hospital here to rely upon. Doesn't that leave an empty feeling, then, to think such a vital building at one time my no longer stand?

The angels of the Lord have entered that building more than any other structure exclusive, of course, of a church.

My brother had an operation there in the 1920s that saved his life.

On passing, I can still envision the mother sitting by the window in the room of her daughter where she was fighting for her life with spinal meningitis. Mary Louise Himmelberger was the young girl. Excellent treatment by doctors and nurses saved her life.

Why there could not have been some means to restore the building in years past remains the $64 question.

With so many memories remaining of St. Francis Hospital, why were not some put to use in making the hospital again useful in different ways?

Lives were saved and lives were lost. That is human nature. The same hold true for many new buildings that go up, as the time also for them comes to go down.

If demolished, the old St. Francis Hospital that at one time was so vital will always hold a dear place in the hearts of many, and an emptiness for the location where the hospital once stood.

Memories can serve so much.

PAULA E. KEMPE

Cape Girardeau