On the second floor of Villa Assumpta, along the dining room corridor wall, hang many commemorative plaques that sisters have received throughout the years for their ministry. One plaque, from Johns Hopkins Medicine International, recognizes Sister Mary Ann Wood as “the official Angel” for the grace and care she showed patients - and staff - for more than two decades.
Sister Mary Ann joined Johns Hopkins Medicine International in 1991 as one of its first international care coordinators. Her role was created to provide medical interpretation for non-English-speaking patients and to ease the journeys of international patients to Baltimore and throughout their medical visits. During her career at Johns Hopkins, Sister Mary Ann trained dozens of employees and assisted hundreds of patients.
In Johns Hopkins’ Dome tabloid, Endocrine Division Director Paul Ladenson said, “For more than 20 years, I’ve had the great pleasure of working with Sister Mary Ann in the care of Spanish-speaking patients. She was always the epitome of compassionate professionalism, the caring face of Johns Hopkins for these patients. To be greeted by her in the hallway always brightened my day.”
Among the highlights of Sister Mary Ann’s retirement ceremony at John’s Hopkins in May 2013 was the naming of a conference room on the sixth floor of the 550 Building in her honor. On the conference room plaque featuring her picture and a short biography, Sister Mary Ann is called a “pillar of the office.”
Prior to this ministry, Sister Mary Ann had already served more than a quarter-century as a missionary in the Bolivian Andes. She was one of the original four sisters from the former Baltimore Province who answered the call to go to Bolivia, the poorest country on the continent, in 1964. Sister Mary Ann ministered 14,000 feet high in places that had neither electricity nor potable water. She lived in the “Altiplanos” high planes, 60 miles from the closest city, La Paz, which was a four-hour, bone-rattling truck ride away.
Working primarily with girls who had completed what would be equivalent to U.S. middle school, Sister Mary Ann trained these girls to become teachers. Later she moved to a small village in the Altiplano and worked with the Aymara people, where she learned to speak Aymara, the most common Indian language in the region. These indigenous peoples were primarily subsistent farmers growing quinoa, potatoes, and maize, as well as herders of llamas and Andean cameloids up on the rugged slopes. In a society in which Indian women were not always heard, Sisters Mary Ann devised programs “to make them feel whole. It’s my passion to love people and let them know they count.” Sister Mary Ann taught what the Aymara people requested of her, such as preventative health care, knitting, or Spanish, so they could converse when they went to market to sell potatoes.
After more than a dozen years ministering, the time came for Sister Mary Ann to move to another village. She gave a memorable speech to community members who were voicing their unhappiness upon learning of her departure. She turned her announcement around, asking instead for their permission to go to another small village to live and work. Knowing that by allowing her to leave she could continue to serve others in need the way she had them, was the only way the community let her go. At a farewell gathering, Sister Mary Ann was presented a plaque from the mayor and community leaders expressing their gratitude for her many years of ministry.
Sister Mary Ann ministered for 27 years in Bolivia, providing teacher training, adult education, health services, evangelization and child enrichment. Recently, when reflecting on her ministry, she summed it up by saying, “We wanted to bring God to the people and let them know how much God loved them.”
