Anna and I want to write this brief note to remember Frank and greet Val as she adjusts to life on her own without Frank!
We have had news of Val returning to her routine amidst her sense of loss and grief, but living gratefully for having been able to be with Frank and care for him till his time of departure.
One aspect about Frank that surfaces in our mind is the way he was able to adapt to various situations in his life.
I remember him once telling me that it was not the decision to leave CMC Vellore from being a professor of surgery that was difficult as much as living with the consequences of that decision. During the next few years after that, till they left India as a family to resettle back in Australia, Frank was adjusting to a loss that he experienced, associated with the decision to leave his surgical and teaching opportunities at CMC Vellore.
On one occasion, he mentioned that it was a major upheaval in his life! And yet, he turned that in to an opportunity. Every time he visited a student group or a hospital to help young doctors, what was forthcoming was the full attention that he gave to bring encouragement and affirmation to young professionals and medical students. He journeyed beyond the lingering personal questions and got involved fully in the lives of others.
In our conversations, Frank would recollect now and then and say, 'it was difficult to leave CMC, but it was necessary to respond to a call'!
Looking back I feel that it was a 'call within a call' similar to what Mother Teresa of Calcutta experienced. During a train journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling Mother Theresa was called to leave her position as the principal of Loreto Convent School, and care for those who lived on the pavements and streets of Calcutta. Mother Theresa did not see this as leaving but as moving on to embrace the purpose of her life!
To me that was what Frank experienced. He came to India in response to the invitation of Friends of Vellore in Australia to work at CMC Vellore. His missionary heart was ready to come to India. When he was confronted by a question, 'who will care for the young doctors working in mission hospitals', his response was readiness to be an itinerant surgeon!
Looking back, there were two defining historic events in Christian health care in India in the last sixty years. One was Frank offering to give time to visit doctors and medical students leading to the formation of the Evangelical Medical Fellowship of India and the other was the formation of the Emmanuel Hospital Association.
Frank's gesture of fostering young doctors and medical students paved the way for them to consider to work cross culturally. That led to more readiness on the part of young doctors to go to rural India in the northern states of India. The Emmanuel Hospital Association became a vehicle to absorb the young doctors and train them in specialities by sponsoring them to the Christian Medical Colleges in Ludhiana and Vellore and using their services to upgrade the facilities in rural mission hospitals.
I believe, that the synchronisation of timing was prophetic and God ordained! Frank might not have seen it this way when he left CMC Vellore. But, what he did led to a series of events in Christian health care in India, now giving us a sense of the significance of Franks's foresight to foster and nurture young doctors in rural mission hospitals. The Emmanuel Hospital Association brought continuity and new life to some hospitals and Community Health projects, and used the skills and services of young doctors to transform lives and communities.
We remember Frank and receive him as a gift given to revive the Christian Health care in rural India. He initiated a process at a time when it made a difference. His example of living as a pilgrim was an example for us to emulate!
M C Mathew (text and photo)
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