Look to the Phoenix

There has been much lamenting in my hometown the last six months or so. And I have been right there, in the trenches, documenting it all, taking and saving 150 pictures (I deleted at least another 150) since last March. Watching our old hospital, sitting vacant for eleven years, meeting its final end.

This is the original entrance to the oldest section of the hospital. 

I took this picture in February 2013, a year before the final fate of the building was decided. 

July 11, 2014

September 14, 2014

September 17, 2014

September 19, 2014

September 23, 2014

I’d like to believe though, that just like the phoenix, something good will rise from this rubble, that the assisted living facility they plan to build on this lot will serve our community as well as the old hospital had for so many years.

When I was at the site a week ago, I had further confirmation that this was not an entire waste. I happened to pull up to the building as these two sisters were hard at work, salvaging what they could from the oldest part of the hospital.

One of them plans to use this as their project for their Gold Award in Girl Scouting (comparable to the Boy Scout’s Eagle Scout), using old pieces of this doorway and marble from the window sills, to be incorporated into a memorial garden at the location of the new Sacred Heart Hospital.

I would say that I am far from done taking pictures. I promise to keep you posted.