29 Sep 2006

An appreciation delivered at the Memorial Service for Sister Gabriel
O’Mahony on 29/Sept/2006

C.H. Leong

We gather here today not to mourn, but to remember and pay tribute to the great lady, this great Columban Nun who has always touched and inspired us with her every act and every deed.

Sister Gabriel O’Mahony chose a life to serve God, yet her contribution and commitments to serve the community does more to glorify the greatness of the Creator.

I had the honour and privilege of knowing Sister Gabriel more than many of you in this congregation —— as her medical student; as her colleague in practicing the art and science of medicine to better our patients and as her collaborator in serving the public in various charitable, non government organizations notably the Society for the Promotion of Hospice Care.

To be her student is to be cherished. Though student you are to her, the relationship to all of us with her were friends. We cherish the vast knowledge in respiratory medical she instilled onto us; the simplistic way she lead us to understand some of the very complicated ramifications of tuberculosis and allergy medicine.

To be her colleague in the care of the sick is to be inspired. Her dedication to the research of tuberculosis, her passion in serving the sick with the total commitment to the doctrine of the Hippocrates Oath and more, has brought her into continuous contact with patients who were by every means contagious and infectious in the days when anti tuberculosis therapy were at their infancy nor were they easily available. For these of us who have had the privilege of being her junior doctor in the Ruttonjee Sanatorium, you would remembered you had never tasted the chore of being on night duties. Sister Gabriel, together with Sister Aquinas, another great Columban Nun, instead took turns to be at night shift themselves, staying in the wards to be in close contact and be always at the bid and call of the patients. Little wonder that the Ruttonjee Sanatorium today stands tall in the international world of teaching and research in chest diseases and earns a reputation for exemplary medical and nursing care.

To be her collaborators in charity work, volunteers in non government organizatons is to be educated. Though retired from the Ruttonjee Sanatorium in 1988, she had never for one moment cease to contribute to human welfare. Facing with the plight of many suffering from terminal illnesses and moved by the motto that “if you cannot add days to life, add life to days” Sister Gabriel with many like- minded founded the Society for the Promotion of Hospice Care in 1986. Her enthusiasm had moved both the Keswick Foundation and the Hong Kong Jockey Club to fund for the building of the Bradbery Hospice, today the bastion for Hospice Care is HK.

Sister Gabriel had in her life received many honours, most notably the MBE in 1990. Yet I have no doubt, nothing gave her more satisfaction than to serve mankind in the glorification of the Creator.

To many of us, it has been an honour and a privilege to know her, to work with her side by side during her life time. To me, the legacy of Sister Gabriel, her teaching, her inspiration, her dedications, her gentle advice will live forever.