Anita CovingtonLast year, Mater Healthy Ageing Coordinator and Social Worker Anita Covington won the Mercy Week Mission Award, an annual award presented to Mater staff who go above and beyond the expectations of their role within the framework of our Mission and Values.

When she won, she immediately acknowledged the contributions of all Mater People in living Mercy, reflecting her humble nature which highlighted in her nomination which said she represented the ‘quiet achievers who go about their role with the Mater Values stamped on everything they do’.

Since her award win, Anita has been asked by those outside her working life about Mercy, and exactly how it is ‘lived’.

“I’ve had questions such as ‘What exactly is mercy?’, ‘What’s the difference between mercy and compassion?’, ‘How do you be merciful at work?’, ‘I understand how a doctor or nurse might show mercy, but how would the guy in the boiler room show mercy?’”

While these questions led to many interesting discussions with her colleagues, what she found more interesting was what was not discussed.

“From the hundreds of kind words I have received from Mater People about the Mercy Award, not one has questioned me to define mercy. Not one. I believe it’s because Mater People don’t really need to intellectualise the term—we live it, we see it, we hear it, we feel it, we understand it, we’re part of it, we build it, we are it.”

Anita only needs to reflect on the first thirty minutes of a typical working day, to see Mercy in action.

“Arriving on the bus I see the familiar sight of Mater People in discussion as they purchase morning coffee, building bonds of support within our working world that so often strengthen our worlds beyond Mater, cultivating relationships with the local community, with the gentleman in the newsagency calling out to many by name.

“I walk up the stairs and am greeted by the young volunteer, who has arrived even before my early start to direct visitors to where they need to go. I arrive at the lift and enjoy the daily ritual of watching Mater People kindly directing others from the lifts, sending a knowing nod to my colleague who will detour along the path to Mater Mothers’ Hospital with a bleary eyed new father, loaded with blue balloons. I greet some of the nurses leaving from night shift and remain bewildered that they could sacrifice so much for their profession. I am amused that a cleaner and a surgeon are either side of me in the lift, knowing that one simply cannot do their job without the other and I wonder if their children who they have just dropped off at Mater Childcare are in the same class. 

“I arrive on the ward and as I sit to check notes for the day ahead, I glance at my nursing colleague who will sit at best for forty minutes over the next eight hours. The Ward Clerk is busy with files, but looks up to present a friendly face to a family. Individuals suddenly become teams and together they work to heal people, to create safe and better outcomes for all, with the expertise of all Mater People providing the backbone for what makes this healing possible.”

Smiling, Anita describes why this scene at Mater is unique.

“I could begin by acknowledging that Mater People are not naïve, we know we face challenges that sometimes feel too big to fathom and each of us has stories about difficult situations we’ve navigated. However, those stories become a small part of a much larger picture, a history which began in 1831 when Catherine McAuley established the Sisters of Mercy. We are entrusted with her work and Mater People do not require an intellectualised answer to how we uniquely define ourselves.”

Mercy— we feel it, we live it, we are it.