In an interview with Rosa Scott on April 29, 2022, I asked about her service to others. She preferred to talk about all that PAX sisters and brothers had done for her..
As far as her help to other people, Rosa remembered that when she was single and had moved to this country. There were many people from Chile, such as military doctors, who needed rides. It was natural to help her countrymen.
When she got to know PAX, she was struck by PAX members’ conviction of the importance of service. When Betsy Schnibbe was sick, Rosa saw the community helping Betsy, as they would later help Rosa herself. Rosa was impressed by Elaine O’Regan’s ministry of collecting Thanksgiving turkeys for Martha’s Table in Washington DC. After Elaine’s passing, Rosa took on the role of delivering turkeys.
Rosa helps people so willingly that her son, Paul, worries about Rosa’s own safety.
For example, Rosa has opened her house to a woman with two sons who were victims of violence. Recently she encountered a man who looked homeless but really was a working man. He had an issue with drinking and had high blood pressure. Rosa took the man’s blood pressure and called the clinic.
At her job at the Arlington Free Clinic, where she worked at the front desk and as a translator for physical therapy sessions, “you have to be compassionate and patient.” Of the people she encountered at the clinic, some were facing deep need. One woman from El Salvador had 16 children and is still working. Rosa sometimes employs her and gives her rides. The women is “inspiring. Very Christian. Always says ‘God will help me’.”
Sometimes Rosa was very strict, telling the patients to follow the rules for their care.
“Sometimes when I was asking too many questions they would say, ‘You are like a sergeant’.” Rosa would say things like “You’re too young not to take care of your diabetes.”
“PAX has been my support.”
Rosa preferred to talk about the ways PAX members and others have helped her.
When she got married, she had been working as a nanny for six years. The children had been “important to me, gave me a lot of love.”
Robert and Margie Coates introduced her to PAX. The Siebentritts also opened the door to PAX for her. When she was a nanny, the Coates family, Carole and Mark Banfield, Marge Schellenberg or the Schnibbes would pick her up to take her to PAX Mass, when it was still being held in the parish house of St. Luke’s [Catholic]. Rosa remembers Mass planning with Lee Collins in Spanish. PAX members would give her rides and take her and the kids in her care to the museum. “I was their child.”
When Ben started coming to PAX, they welcomed him even though he was Methodist. Father Joe McCloskey performed Rosa and Ben’s wedding. When Ben was very sick in the hospital at the end, a man from a church came and offered to give Ben the last rites. “They gave him the Catholic rite in Spanish. Funny.” PAX people never talked with Ben about why he didn’t change religion, but accepted him as he was. He did artwork for them.
The Schellenbergs, along with Joan Urbanczyk and Marie Dennis, founded the Center for New Creation in Arlington. Carole Banfield and her husband Mark were also very active in the peace movement. Rosa recalls, “I got involved in demonstrations. I used to take Paul. I had a yellow New Creation t-shirt for Paul.”
Ben was “an artist by heart,” often depressed and, at the end, biopolar. It was a very hard time, and tricky economically. Joan Urbanczyk would lend money and take Rosa’s son to practices. When Ben was in the hospital, other people from PAX and the Arlington Free Clinic helped. Lous and Nancy Rosso would go to stay in Georgetown with Ben while Rosa worked. Elise Siebentritt was a therapist for Ben and Rosa for a long time. “They were a gift to the community,” Rosa sai of the Rossos.
Asked about weekly “no discussion, just prayer” sessions that Rosa and Joan Urbanczyk used to hold, Rosa said, “We were sisters in a sense.” Rosa could ask Joan for anything—help with Paul, help with money. “You can never [re]pay favors—it comes from inside.”
“Rosa’s Team”
Now that Rosa is on her own, especially after her accident six years ago, PAX has come through for her, forming “Rosa’s team.” “God has plans in mind and helped me here.”
The women from PAX, especially Marilu McCarthy, would organize help for Rosa, with a list to keep track of who could help on what days. Rosa was in a wheelchair for one year, and “Rosa’s team” helped her find a lighter wheelchair. “Joe Nangle came to the hospital and helped my soul. God has never left me alone.”
“God is always with you”
Throughout all of this, she has been “open to God in many ways. Life puts you in different places, and you just follow and ask for help when you need it.” Rosa concludes, “Trust in God; [there is] always someone to help you. God is always with you.”