Their story is our story.
A legacy born: 1919-1941
The five Sisters of St. Joseph who came to Bend to establish a hospital knew quickly the clapboard building that passed for a hospital wouldn’t do. Bend was booming.
The sisters started planning a new hospital almost immediately. In 1922, they dedicated the first St. Charles Hospital. In doing so, they established a legacy: A medical facility anchored in the bedrock principles of faith, yet responsive to the needs of a changing community.
Those first decades were often difficult for the struggling new hospital. The sisters started by caring for the sick during the Spanish Flu epidemic.
The Great Depression brought grinding poverty and hungry people to the doors of the hospital. The end of this period saw a war that would touch everyone and everything.
Despite those challenges, the sisters and St. Charles Hospital persevered. They were shaped and tested by these often-difficult times, yet they were also imbued with the compassion only hard times can teach.