Meet Modesta Cataruzza, porter, Grey Nuns Community Hospital

Life has brought Modesta Cataruzza, 83, many challenges. Widowed as a young woman in the late 1970s, she suffered depression and panic attacks while struggling to support her two young children. At one point, she and her family relied on social security. But support from her doctor and learning about positivity helped her through.

“I had a beautiful doctor whom I believed God had guided to help people like me,” says Modesta. “I read many books on positive thinking and the bad effects of worrying. Through all my suffering, I learned the power of positivity.”

Modesta also found support at Covenant Health. In 1984, when she couldn’t get a permanent job after completing a teacher’s assistant program at Grant MacEwan College (now MacEwan University), she sought work at what was then the Edmonton General Hospital (now the Edmonton General Continuing Care Centre).

“I went to the hospital many, many times. I knew I had to start with whatever that was available, and there were a couple of people who (spoke up for me) and said, ‘This lady needs a job.’”

Finally, after she showed one of the managers a letter her 10-year-old son had written to God about her need for work, Modesta was offered an opening in housekeeping. She was in her early 40s, and little did she know that the job would be the start of a decades-long career with Covenant Health and that she would experience many changes along the way.

After working for almost 10 years at the Edmonton General and wanting to use her skills in other areas, Modesta became a unit attendant with the labour and delivery team at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital, assuming the position from someone who had gone on leave.

“I went there, and it was very hard work. It was in the afternoon and evening, until 11 o’clock. There was no housekeeper in the afternoon, in the evening, so I had to do everything myself.”

That position turned out to be short-lived. When the person she replaced returned, Modesta went back to the Edmonton General to work with the housekeeping team. Then, encouraged by her manager, she applied for and was hired to work with the rehabilitation medicine program as an assistant for occupational therapy, physical therapy and recreational therapy.

Throughout her time with the program, she felt supported by her supervisors and the team. 

A year later, the rehabilitation medicine program at the Edmonton General was moved to the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, and many of the team members, including Modesta, had to transfer to other positions. She returned to the Grey Nuns, where she took on a unit attendant role with its rehabilitation medicine department, getting patients ready for their physiotherapy or occupational therapy.

“We got to work in the back in the big pools, and I made a lot of things with the sewing machine for the physio pulley and so on,” Modesta says.

Modesta worked with the Grey Nuns’ rehabilitation department until 1998, when she became a porter with the environmental services team, a position she still holds today.

When she first took on the role, the assignment system for porters consisted of a dispatcher who wrote and gave out paper slips, Modesta says. Now, the system is automated. There is also extensive training to help porters work safely and avoid back injuries and other issues.

As a porter, Modesta transfers patients within different areas of the hospital and delivers medications and IVAC machines. It’s a role that involves constant interaction with patients, families, physicians, staff and volunteers.

The best part of the job is seeing and talking with people, Modesta says. And what motivates her is caring for patients. “We are here because patients need us, everyone from physicians to nurses to porters to attendants.”

Her advice for anyone starting a career in health care is to “work willingly at whatever you do” and do what is required to help patients. She recommends Covenant Health as an employer because it’s not like other healthcare organizations.

“It’s different, and it’s better,” says Modesta. “They have a different philosophy. They believe in something higher than us.”

In fact, Modesta’s daughter, Lisa, now 58, and her son, Steven, 51, have both worked for Covenant Health during their careers. While Lisa has since moved to New Brunswick, where she works in a lab, Steven still works at the Grey Nuns as a senior service attendance, ordering equipment and tools needed for surgeries.

At 83, Modesta continues to enjoy her work at the Grey Nuns. “My job is patient care, first and foremost,” she says. “Then, for me, it is to get out of the house to meet and socialize with people. Money is an important thing, but it’s the last thing.”

Modesta is proud of who she is and what she has accomplished. “I have learned valuable lessons in life. I was down, but I came back up. And I'm still here in one piece. Strong, powerful, positive and healthy.”