International Womens Day
Ethel Forrest, after whom The Forrest Centre is named, provided substantial funds to start our organisation.
Miss Forrest was born in Wagga Wagga on April 13th 1887 to parents Edward Forrest and Anne (Nee Ohlsen).
In her later years, Ethel became an eccentric identity in Wagga Wagga and was a recluse of sorts. Her dress and appearance was shabby. She lived above The Windmill Café in Gurwood Street Wagga Wagga, one of the properties she owned. The conditions of her living quarters were bleak. She horded her money in tins, paper bags and in the pages of numerous newspapers that were stacked high in every room.
On Ethel’s death 21st June 1977 aged 90, she left a considerable endowment to the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn. It was Ethel’s wish was for a health care facility to be built.
The Little Company of Mary contributed the land, a Capital Grant and the Wagga Wagga community raising much needed funds to add to Ethel Forrest’s generous endowment, saw the birth of The Ethel Forrest Day Care Centre and the Mary Potter Nursing Home. At the time it was said to be an “ecumenical milestone in the history of Australia”.
Mary Potter started the Little Company of Mary nuns. The Little Company of Mary are a Shareholder of The Forrest Centre. Venerable Mary Potter born in London on 22 November 1847, grew up in a single parent family after her father William Potter left the marriage when Mary was a young child in 1848. Mary lived in London and later returned to Portsmouth with her mother Mary Anne and four brothers.
As Mary grew older, and after a broken engagement, she began to realise that she was called to pray for and to be with the suffering and dying of the world, as Mary, the Mother of God was with Jesus on Calvary.
Mary understood suffering because of her own ill health from birth and her faith deepened because of it. This "Inspiration" became very strong, and Mary knew she was called to commence a Religious Order devoted to praying and caring for the sick and dying.
Mary travelled to Nottingham and met with Bishop Bagshawe who helped her to find the first convent space in Hyson Green, where she founded the Little Company of Mary in 1877.
In 1882, after meeting with Pope Leo XIII in Rome, Mary stayed on at his request to carry out her dream at the Calvary Hospital, and in 1908 she established St Gregory's Nursing School.
Mary Potter was considered a pioneer in caring for the sick and her dream encompassed the globe. The Little Company of Mary has become a forerunner in health-care and in particular the modern hospice where holistic care is offered to the terminally ill In the spirit of Mary at the foot of the cross.
Six Little Company of Mary sisters arrived in Sydney on 04 November 1885, establishing Lewisham Hospital which opened in 1889.
At the Invitation of Bishop Dwyer, LCM sisters moved to Wagga Wagga in 1926, where they commenced a foundation at Foxborough Hall, while the hospital to become known as Calvary Hospital was built. The first patients were admitted in 1930.
Suzanne Aubert founded the Daughter of Our Lady of Compassion, who we know as the Sisters at Loreto Home of Compassion. Suzanne Aubert (19 June 1835 - 01 October 1926) is better known to us as Sister Mary Joseph, or Mother Aubert.
Suzanne was one of four children of Clarice and Louis Aubert, a respectable middle-class family in a small village not far from Lyon, France.
Following the 19th century French custom among middle-class and upper-class families, Suzanne's parents had arranged her marriage to the son of a family friend. When she grew up however, she refused to comply.
Mother Aubert went to New Zealand from France in 1860. From there she and the Sisters of Mercy formed the Congregation of the Holy Family to educate Maori Children. She started a home for orphans and the underprivileged in Jerusalem NZ on the Whanganui River in 1885. She went on to found the Daughters of Our Lady of Compassion in 1892, later starting two facilities in Wellington: the first, St Joseph's Home for the Incurables in 1900, and Our Lady's Home of Compassion in 1907 which was initially for the care of babies and children.
Mother Aubert devoted her life to helping others. Her work took her from France to Auckland, to Hawke's Bay, to the Whanganui River and finally to Wellington. She combined Maori medicine and Pakeha science, and wrote books in Maori, English and French adding significantly to a higher cultural understanding and literary heritage. She was actively engaged with the local Maori population and spoke Maori well.
In 2016 Mother Aubert was declared Venerable, an important milestone in the process to Sainthood.
