Deep
among decades of journals kept by the Sisters of Mercy is a touching story of a
Chinese egg man and his dying wife. The story exemplifies the compassion and
generosity of the religious women who founded Bakersfield's Catholic hospital
in 1910. And to some it is a focus of Mercy's 100th anniversary celebration.
One
day last fall, Stephanie Weber was working her way through the boxes that held
the nuns' daily notes stretching back to the early 1900s. The vice president of
fund development for the Friends of Mercy, Weber was preparing an anniversary
history display.
Most
of the pages were filled with everyday occurrences and thoughts: staffing
changes; the activities of individual sisters; celebrations; changes of
seasons; one even reflected on the sheep returning to the fields around
Bakersfield.
But
a page from August 1942 was different. It told the story of a Chinese man who
sold eggs to the nuns. One day, the man brought his wife to Mercy Hospital.
"She
was admitted in very serious condition and had the added complication of being
near term in pregnancy," wrote the nun assigned to keep the journal that
day. Her husband "spoke freely to different ones of his wife, their home
life and how dearly he loved her. The one thing he wanted was her recovery.
"From
talking to the sisters, he learned more and more about our way of thinking and
was gradually prepared for the separation which was surely coming. He saw that
everything that could be done to save her had been done, but it was evident
that God was going to take her to himself. But before going, she gave birth to
a dear baby girl, bright and healthy."
The
egg man asked the nuns to baptize both his newborn daughter and his wife,
before she died. He then left the baby in the nuns' care for a month, while he
made arrangements to take "little Joan" home.
In
October, he wrote to the nuns: "Enclosed is check. I'm very grateful for
the wonderful care given to my wife. I am thankful to the Father for our little
girl to take the place of my late wife, whom I so dearly loved. Our baby [has] been
a source of great happiness to me. Each night I pray for her. Hoping to see all
of you again soon. I am yours truly, John Lewis."
Subsequent
journal entries confirm that the egg man continued his relationship with the
nuns and he became a Catholic.
As
Weber read the letter, she wondered. Her children had gone to school with
children of Chinese descent whose last name was Lewis. Could they be related?
What had happened to little Joan? Research by Erica Easton, the foundation's
annual giving coordinator, revealed Bakersfield-based Farmer John Eggs was
founded in the 1920s by a man named John Lewis.
In
early December, Easton took a copy of the journal entry to the family's egg
ranch on Panama Lane, just west of Fairfax Road. She gave the story to John
Lewis Jr., the now deceased egg man's son.
He
allowed that the story had to be about his father. As far as he knew, they were
the only Chinese Catholic family in Bakersfield who raised chickens and sold
eggs. And the baby in the story must be his sister Joan, who lives in Fresno.
He promised to confirm that when the family gathered for Christmas.
"Dad
never talked about it," Lewis said, during a recent interview. "He
never brought it up. We never thought about who took care of Joan when he was a
single man, with a newborn baby. It turned out to be Mrs. Kincaid, an older
white lady who lived on Niles and helped take care of all of us."
John
Jr. said when he read the journal entry about his father, he cried.
"I
realized what he must have gone through. You think at that age nobody's going
to die or get sick," said John Jr., who chokes up when he talks about it.
After
a few years, the egg man remarried. Three boys and three girls were born of
this second marriage, with John Jr., who is now 62, being the oldest.
John
Jr. said the children never thought about Joan being a half-sister. "We were
all just raised together" as one big family.
Joan,
now 67 and married to Wendell Lum, works part time for an optometrist. She has
five children from a first marriage, two grandchildren and two
step-grandchildren.
During
a recent interview, Lum said she knew her mother, Hazel, was very sick when she
was born. But like her brother, she had been told little about her birth and
nothing about her father's struggles.
"The
thing I thought was so beautiful was the deep love my father had for my
mother," she said. "I knew he loved her. I saw some love
letters."
She
was also touched by the obvious care the Mercy nuns showed her mother and
father, and her.
The
journal entry "that just dropped out of the sky" is a wonderful gift,
she said.
The
story of the eggman was one of several articles written by Dianne Hardisty to observe
the 100th anniversary of Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield. It was
published in The Bakersfield Californian on March 30, 2010.
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