An immigrant teaches dignity

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By Laurie Roberts, Arizona Republic

I wasn't going to write about Norma Galit. She is, after all, an "illegal," having overstayed her visa, and thus, in the eyes of many, no better than a common criminal. But then there was that sermon last Sunday - something about paracletes and treating people with dignity and respect. And there were the words of Mary Lemionet and Nancy Brown.

Norma worked in a group home and cared for elderly people, including Lemionet's father, until late March when it closed. "To her, it was not just a job," Lemionet said. "She had a real love for the people in her care, and that makes all the difference."

"She was like that to all her patients," added Brown, a hospice volunteer who often visited the home to check on Alzheimer's patients. "People in there are so hungry just to be touched and Norma would touch them. She'd say, 'Oh you look beautiful today' and do their hair, do their nails. She made their days so much better."

The question now: Are we willing to return the favor?

Norma, 58, and her 66-year-old husband, Renato, left their home on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines two and a half years ago. She was a teacher's aide and he ran a small grocery and fruit stand. But like all parents, they wanted better for their kids and so they came here, to earn enough to send them to college in Manila.

Which is how they came to be caregivers - Norma in Scottsdale and Renato in Chandler.

To Norma, it was more than a job. It was a calling. She was what the bishop, in his sermon Sunday, called a paraclete - a comforter. He said a lot of other stuff, too, about how such people are a gift, really, and something about treating all people with dignity and respect, but being suspicious that he was probably talking about illegal immigrants, well naturally, I tuned that part out.

In fact, I didn't give any of it much thought until midweek, when I heard about Norma.

Word came down that her group home was closing at the end of March and it was like breaking up a family. "I saw her that day and she said her heart was breaking," Lemionet said, as if that might explain what happened next. "But all our hearts were breaking."

That night, on March 27, Norma had a massive stroke. By the time she got to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn, she was in a coma and doctors didn't hold out much hope. Normally, there would be a plan by now to move her to a long-term care facility, but who would take an illegal immigrant with no insurance?

Renato wants to take his wife of 35 years home. For weeks, hospital officials have been struggling to figure out what to do. The cost of flying a comatose woman to the Philippines, after all, is far beyond the reach of most, especially a man who counts his assets in family, not fortune. Then the most amazing thing happened.

On Tuesday, Norma woke up.

She's paralyzed on one side and can't say more than a word here and there. But her eyes follow you and she raises her good arm when she hears the word "home." It's a waiting game now to see what life has to offer. But suddenly, the prospect of getting Norma home seems possible.

"It's really the best scenario," said Carol Canada, who handles case management for the hospital. In fact, it's the only option.

So now comes the hard part. The make-you-spitting-mad part, wherein I mention that Brown has set up a bank account for anyone who would like to help Norma go home. No one knows yet what it'll cost. It depends upon her condition.

If you'd like to help, you can contribute to the Norma Galit Benefit Fund (#3878918451) at any Wells Fargo. Or you can reach Brown at 602-284-4300 or helpnorma@gmail.com.

I didn't want to write about Norma because I know what people will say this side of Sunday morning. The frustration over illegal immigration has reached such a fevered pitch that it's hard to see beyond our white-hot anger anymore, hard to get beyond that word, "illegal." Yet in these turbulent times, I'm guessing the bishop, if I asked him, would say that there are moments when we should look beyond a person's immigration status and into her heart.

And our own.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8635. Read her blog at robertsblog.azcentral.com.