reprinted from El Paso Times
That’s how internationally known artist Manuel Gregorio Acosta recalls the women from the Visiting Nurse Association who nursed his terminally ill mother.
Concha Acosta, who was her son’s favorite model and was the subject of what he considers many of his best works, became ill with cancer of the colon.
Manuel Acosta, a sister and a nephew’s wife who was a nurse wanted to care for the dying woman in the artist’s studio/home at 366 Buena Vista. There were periodic trips to the hospital, Acosta said, but his mother wanted to be at home with family and friends nearby.
The day came, he said, when he needed more than the three of them could do.
"Someone told us about the visiting nurses and we called them," he said. "That very day, two of them came, all shiny and starched and smiling. They spent a long time with my mother, talking to her, checking her.
"Then the curses came back every day, sometimes two, sometimes just one. They would attend to her medical needs, then they bathed her and dressed her in a fresh gown. The bed linens would be changed and, when they, my Concha would be comfortable and smiling.
"They made it possible for her to stay in her home. I can never say enough good thing about the visiting nurses."
Because of his deep feelings for the community agency, Acosta has given his blessings to the use of one of his drawings on the invitation to a fundraiser for the organization. The sketch is a period hats from Mexico, felt sombreros and gaily decorated straw picture hats.