PORTSMOUTH — The students took turns in twos and threes to bring their artwork closer to Natale Baron Swift, the 46-year-old mother of five who is living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. They could have been her own children the way she treated them.
The children, 8th graders at St. Philomena School, are reading the best-selling memoir “Tuesday’s with Morrie — An Old Man, a Young Man and Life’s Greatest Lesson,” the story of an old professor dying from ALS, known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and the wisdom he imparts to a former student. Today, they spend a Friday morning with Natalie and she speaks to them like a mother.
“Just remember when Peter was with Jesus and he walked on the water,” the devout Catholic tells the children when asked if her faith has grown since her diagnosis. “As long as he looked at Jesus’ face, Peter walked on water toward him. When he wasn’t looking at him he sank, but when he felt his presence again Peter walked on water again.”
The art work was inspired by aphorisms the children made up in a lesson that asked them to model, in their own words, the power of advice, as Morrie offered over the last months of his life to the book’s author, Mitch Albom. Their teacher, Pamela Principe, and Swift are friends. Principe invited her friend to talk with students and become part of their lesson.
Santiago Hirschmann, 14, and Harrison Wardwell, 13, held up their painting of a pie and the aphorism “Life is like a piece of pie you should enjoy every bite.”
“I am inspired at how she is at peace with her friends, family and God,” Hirschmann said.
Wardwell added, “I think it is amazing how she remains so spiritual and so active.”
Faye Callahan, 13, marveled at Swift’s attitude in face of the disease.
“I think she has so much joy in her life and she still looks out for everyone else,” she said. “She shows such loving compassion to everyone.”
Swift uses a motorized scooter for trips outside her Warren home. She sat on her scooter and answered the students’ questions about her life, her support, her fear and her faith because she was a student at the school once and now she is a mother and she knows how it feels to live both.
The children removed their work from easels arranged in a semi-circle behind Swift, approached her slowly, respectfully, like they were bringing up the offertory gifts to the altar at Mass. They read their own aphorisms to her and explained the accompanying art. Swift studied each submission carefully and commented kindly about their work.
Her mother, Priscilla Barron, drove her to the private, Catholic school in a handicap accessible van. Barron and two nuns who once were Swift’s teachers at the school sat in the audience of students to watch and listen to the poignant presentation.
The hard, medical fact is that ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. The progressive degeneration in ALS eventually leads to the death of the body’s motor neurons; the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.
Swift said afterward that while in nursing school two years ago she noticed her left leg was weakened. She was a runner since childhood and ran for teams in high school at St. Mary Academy-Bay View. By the end of the spring semester in 2012 she wasn’t “walking as well,” she said. She was diagnosed with the disease that July.
The questions from students were prepared and to the point:
Who has impacted your life and made it better for you?
“The people who visit me daily,” she said. “Family and friends.”
Has the disease imparted lessons?
“This world is such a beautiful place for me,” she said. “I think because of this illness I see that beauty.”
Is she afraid to die?
“It is easier to think of death if you have a strong faith. I’m not sad for myself...,” her voice trailed off with a slight tremble and tears welled. “I am sad for my kids and my husband and my family.”
How did she react to the diagnosis?
“I had worked in a nursing home with patients with ALS. There was the initial fear...but I don’t dwell on anything negative,” she said. “I felt sad at the time. I gave myself five minutes to feel sad and I moved on.”
How does this affect her relationship with her children?
“The three oldest are teens or ‘tweens’ and it is an age that serves them well. They are what they should be. They are very self-centered and that protects them,” she said. “I still yell at my kids...” The students joined her in laughing.
“I can’t go and grab them when I want to, and that serves them well. I have a four-year-old who stands at the top of the stairs and says, ‘You can’t get me.’”
She uses a walker to get around the house and she is amazed that when she drops something and can’t reach it, there always seems to be a knock on the door and someone arrives to help her. Her friends and her family take turns helping out with household chores she can no longer handle.
“Daily tasks are hard, like getting dressed. My hands are getting weaker and weaker.”
School principal Donna Bettencourt-Glavin told Swift, “I want you to know that all of our students will pray for you.”
Swift lives on her Catholic faith. She is a parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Bristol. She often prays The Divine Mercy along with its broadcast on Relevant Radio, AM 550, prays the Holy Rosary and devotedly wears the brown scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. She explained to the students the importance of her faith in her life from childhood when she attended St. Philomena’s School to the present day. The scapular is larger than the standard postage stamp sized variety and includes the inscription, “Whosoever dies wearing this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.”
She showed the scapula to the students, and, after explaining its purpose added, “Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.”
