Sr. Nuala Horgan is a great storyteller! So, Healing Touch asked her to share part of her own life story.

She was the youngest of six children, four girls and two boys, and both of her parents were teachers. Her two brothers both became priests, one a Columban Missionary and the other a diocesan priest for the Diocese of Florida, USA.

After school, she decided to do nursing and was a qualified nurse and midwife before joining MMM. As a small child she was deeply moved by the MMM film “Visitation”. But she was not so keen on nuns and swept the whole idea from her head. But it must have been there as a call in the background and finally, she paid attention. She feels now privileged to be a full member of MMM.

Her overseas missionary experience has been wide and varied. She has worked in Tanzania, Malawi and Ethiopia. In MMM she upgraded her nursing education to Tutorship level and was a very effective tutor in all her assignments. She was also involved in public health work and in palliative care.

A keen photographer, Sr. Nuala has many albums from her time in East Africa. Now based in Drogheda, she also enjoys reading, art and drama.

Her most memorable mission experience was the time she spent in Ethiopia at Wolisso Hospital. It was a diocesan-run hospital and training school. This was the only Catholic hospital and training school in the country of Ethiopia. There was a fully international community of Sisters running the institution. There were Ethiopians, English, Indian and Irish, in our group. The Administrator was American. Everyone got on very well and was hugely enriched by the composition of the group. Nuala loved the culture of the country, and loved the students themselves who were full of life and personality. They were heroic as all teaching was done in English while truly the majority could not speak this foreign language. This was a challenge. Another challenge was a huge shortage of textbooks in each of the countries where she taught nursing. They relied heavily on help from donors.

One thing that life has taught her is to always be respectful to everybody she encounters. Also, it is good to be patient and listen to others. It is a wonderful thing to experience other cultures and learn from them.