Healing All People

Healing all People, Roper St. Francis Healthcare, Charleston, SC

I work for a pretty unique health system. Ten years ago, the non profit Catholic hospital I worked at merged with our non profit competitor and neighboring hospital to form a merged health system. Wowza....you can imagine the fun and games with all the strong Charleston personalities involved in that project. Since I have a closet full of pictures I had quite a few visits and phone calls when they assigned author Jane O'Boyle the task of writing the story.

I stood in line last night at the Governor Thomas Bennett house after the toast and Jane autographed it "It wouldn't have happened without you!" and then she had me sign my picture in her copy of the book.

I walked around sipping wine and interrupting conversations to ask the caste of characters to sign their pictures. Finally as I was leaving I was trying for an artsy shot with the book cover and a floral arrangement and the bar tender asked if I needed a model to hold the book. He was gave me my final autograph for the book and scribbled, "Have fun!" on the front page. I did. :)

Healing All People reads almost like fiction, with a cast of characters only Charleston and its real-life medical community could create. This is the story of two centuries-old hospitals, Roper and St. Francis. They were neighbors that supported one another, where generations of doctors treated patients from the Civil War era through the civil rights era. Then the 1980s and 1990s changed the landscape in healthcare. National healthcare conglomerates came courting in Charleston, and the two hospitals that once supported each other became rivals in a swirl of lawsuits and distrust.

Jane O'Boyle interviewed scores of doctors and hospital staff to unravel a tale that is a touchstone of twentieth-century Lowcountry history. Filled with colorful personalities and anecdotes, as well as black-and-white photographs, Healing All People is the heartwarming and entertaining story of community members who went beyond the call to save a cherished tradition.

I've been an awfully good girl this chaotic week and ending early with a meeting in town am thinking I might be able to make to my Friday matinee after all. Sitting for a couple of hours in the dark sounds perfect right now.