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BRECKSVILLE, Ohio — Former all-conference volleyball player Lindsay Shirilla has more on her resume than athletic prowess. The Notre Dame College graduate and St. Joseph parishioner works as a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic.
This past Lent, she went on her first professional medical mission trip to Honduras. The purpose was to treat people by providing doctor visits, medication and dental work. Her main responsibility was triage. The team would see between 200 and 300 people per day, she said.
“The highlight for me was to see the people so happy and grateful after getting to see a medical professional or receiving medication or vitamins,” said Shirilla.
The team of medical professionals worked in a city quite close to the capital, Tegucigalpa. Shirilla said the local people are very poor and only receive these services when a medical brigade arrives from the United States or Canada.
The 25-year-old said the Feb. 15-22 mission trip was organized by a parishioner of the Church of the Gesu in University Heights, Ohio.
Another highlight for Shirilla was meeting Franciscan Sister Maria Rosa Leggol, known as the Mother Teresa of Honduras, who founded the orphanage across the street from where she was staying. The orphanage is called “Sociedad Amigos de los Ninos.”
The 92-year-old sister told the medical missionaries about her call to found the orphanage and that she was orphaned as a child herself. Shirilla said her meeting with Sister Maria Rosa has a special place in her heart.
Shirilla said this wasn’t her first mission trip experience. She had been on a similar trip while in college. However, she said, this was her first mission as a nurse and, perhaps, won’t be her last.
Laura Ieraci contributed to this report.
Caption: St. Joseph parishioner Lindsay Shirilla poses with Sister Maria Rosa Leggol, known as the Mother Teresa of Honduras, during a recent medical mission trip to the country. (Photo: Dr. Drogo Karl K. Montague)
As published in Horizons, June 2, 2019.
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