Parish embraces newcomer, helps in his recovery journey

OCEAN CITY – Josuè Olmedo knew that leaving his family in Mexico to return to New Jersey would be a life-changing decision. 

What wasn’t known at the time: how this move would become a transformative experience for the parishioners of Saint Damien as well.

“This has been quite a journey,” Rosemary Cates, parish nursing ministry coordinator, says as she and Olmedo embrace in a teary hug. “Josuè is like family to all of us now.”

Indeed, Olmedo, 21, who was born in New Jersey, gathers with this parish family in one of the church’s offices on a recent morning as he and others from the Saint Damien community recollect how they were brought into one another’s lives.

For about a year, Saint Damien has been working diligently to establish a thriving parish nursing ministry. Today, the ministry includes about 15-20 volunteers, both nurses and parishioners who help with everyday needs.

“Parish nurses care for the body, mind and spirit. Our role as a parish nurse is often to go beyond the physical symptoms and look at the entire being, knowing that sometimes it’s a spiritual connection that a person is missing, too,” says Nicole Keefer, RN, director of parish nursing for VITALity Catholic Healthcare Services of the Diocese of Camden. “In parish nursing, we pray with people, take them to doctor appointments and serve as patient advocates, helping to explain a diagnosis. But we don’t do hands-on treatment.”

It was exactly this advocacy and education that drew Olmedo to the parish – through the intervention of parishioner Asuncion Avila.

Avila, an active member of the local Hispanic community, first heard of Olmedo through a cousin, who was often relating Olmedo’s story. Olmedo, whose mother moved the family to Mexico when he was 3, had returned to New Jersey to earn a better wage than that offered in the Oaxaca region. Now 21,  Olmedo was working and learning English in Ocean City, but was having difficulty navigating the health care system, needing care after fracturing his spine in a motorcycle accident when he was younger.

“I thought, ‘I have to meet Josuè. This sounds like a guy who needs help,’” Avila says.

After meeting Olmedo and seeing how difficult it was for him to even walk with his injury, Avila remembered hearing from Sister Veronica Roche, SSJ – parish pastoral associate for Hispanic ministry – that Saint Damien’s had a parish nursing ministry.

“I thought it would be a good idea to bring Josuè to the church,” Avila says.

As Cates, a retired nurse practitioner, got to know Olmedo – with translation assistance from Sister Veronica and Avila – “I could see his symptoms were worsening. He had severe back pain, and standing or sitting for any prolonged period of time made it worse. Pain was radiating in his arm, and he had numbness in his neck.” 

All the while, he continued to work his job at a restaurant on the Ocean City boardwalk, and he didn’t want to stop.

So while he continued his work over the summer, Cates embraced her vocation. She worked with Keefer to find a health care provider that would accept his Medicaid. She reached out to a general surgeon she knew from Our Lady of Lourdes who is now with AtlantiCare. When she asked him for doctor recommendations, he personally took on the case, examining Olmedo and getting him an MRI. Eventually, Olmedo was scheduled for surgery with a neurosurgeon at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

But Olmedo’s condition was worsening, and fluid was building up in his spine. When Cates went to visit him at work one day in the fall, she realized surgery couldn’t wait any longer. He could barely stand. She rushed him to Cooper’s emergency room. He had surgery on Oct. 10; parishioners and some faithful in Camden who had heard of his story visited him in the hospital.

He is now using a cane, but a few days after Christmas, he will get leg braces to assist in his walking and work with a physical therapist. Meanwhile, he has a new job on the boardwalk.

Throughout his journey, Olmedo has become a familiar face in the parish. Avila and his wife introduced Olmedo to the congregation; he is utilizing Sister Veronica’s English as a Second Language materials, and parish bulletins keep the faithful apprised of his progress.

“There is a lot of support from both the English- and Spanish-speaking parishioners,” Sister Veronica says. “When prayers were appearing in the bulletin, people in both communities would come up and say, ‘What time is Josuè’s surgery?’”

Cates agrees. “There are so many different prayer groups in this parish who were praying for Josuè. I still get emails and text messages asking, ‘How is Josuè?’”

Meanwhile, as parish pastoral associate for justice and community outreach, Joanne Kelly helps Olmedo with food needs when necessary during his recovery. In addition to getting supermarket gift cards from Saint Damien’s Saint Vincent de Paul Society, she also stops by Olmedo’s apartment with meals from the parish’s Food for Life ministry, which cooks and freezes meals for those in need.

Cates continues to work with Olmedo on any medical or government forms needed, which she says, has been a helpful learning experience for the parish nursing ministry, too. With 35 parish nursing ministries in the Diocese of Camden, Keefer also says Olmedo’s experience will help in her work assisting others.

“I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit put all the right people in the right place to help Josuè,” Cates says.

And getting to know Olmedo has expanded Cates’ family as well. Over the months, she and her husband have learned some Spanish and gotten to know Olmedo’s mother in Mexico through video chats.

“His mom is overjoyed because a lot of people are helping and becoming friends with her son. Before he left Mexico, she had no idea how he would get along here,” Cates says.

As he heals, Olmedo hopes to get more involved in the parish. He is a baptized Catholic but hasn’t received the Sacraments of Confirmation and the Eucharist. He was devoted to his faith in Mexico, even once riding his bicycle for three days to attend the annual celebration for the Virgen de Juquila.

“When I ask anybody about their journey here to this country and where they got the courage to leave everything they know, they all say it was God’s grace. Everybody connects it to faith,” Sister Veronica says.

Olmedo gets emotional as he speaks about his experience since arriving at Saint Damien Parish.

“I am so grateful for what I have received. I could never have imagined that there are so many people who care so very much, even to the point of not wanting me to be alone at the hospital,” he says. “I am especially thankful for Rosemary and all the time she has spent with me and my mom. The phone calls were a big help.”

Putting an arm around Olmedo, Cates’ eyes shine with emotion as the two grin. “See this infectious smile? I could never turn that down,” she says.