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70 Years: Joan O'Brien, SP
(Sister James Albert)
An inner light emanates from Sister Joan O’Brien. It promises compassion, understanding, love and support. It is a quality that has endeared her to patients and their family members, hospital employees and others in her 70 years of religious life.
 Born Marie Jeanne d’Arc on June 20, 1921, in the village L’Assumption, Quebec, she was the ninth of 11 children in a French-Canadian and Irish family. At age 8, she and her three-year-old sister Jacqueline moved to a Sisters of Providence orphanage following their mother’s death. The Providence Sisters’ loving example moved her to enter the religious community in 1940. She made first vows in 1942 and took the name Sister James Albert to honor her father.
It was an adventure when she was sent west to Seattle to be a companion in the infirmary at Mount St. Vincent. Working as a cook at St. Catherine School in Seattle and St. Michael School in Olympia, she learned the English language and American customs.
Sister Joan graduated with a nursing degree from Seattle University in 1951. She was a nursing supervisor at St. Vincent Hospital, Portland, Ore.; St. Joseph Hospital, Vancouver, Wash.; Providence Hospital, Everett, Wash.; and St. Peter Hospital, Olympia, Wash. From 1958 to 1971, she was nursing supervisor at Providence Medical Center in Seattle.
A twinkle in her eye and a great sense of humor
Colleen Hardy, director of nursing at Providence Marianwood, met Sister Joan as nursing supervisor when Colleen worked in the mailroom at Providence Seattle, where her parents served as a nurse and a physician. When Colleen began nursing school at Seattle University, she worked in the nursing unit after classes. Sister Joan had opened the Pastoral Care Department at the hospital then, after receiving certification in 1972 from the Pastoral Institute for Chaplains in Washington, D.C., and serving in pastoral care for five months at Providence Everett. She visited patients, supporting them and their families, and passed communion.
“She knew everyone by name. She always had a very warm and kind word for everyone, and she always had a twinkle in her eye,” Colleen recalled. She could be tough if you did not meet her high standards, Colleen added, “but she had a great sense of humor.”
When she left Providence Seattle after nearly 25 years, Sister Joan worked with the elderly at Vincent House, low-income housing downtown. She eagerly helped residents move in, and she learned to find them furnishings and fixtures and to fix things, including a garbage disposal. Later, she devoted her spare time to assisting the sisters in the infirmary at St. Joseph Residence, Seattle, where she retired in 1994. She is beloved by the sisters and especially the staff there.
Ever selfless and humble, Sister Joan said once that her gift was her love of serving others. Many would agree.
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