Charlie Garcia
A Place of Personal and Presidential History
It was May 1972. I had just come in for my regular shift at Holy Cross Hospital and I was wondering what all the commotion was about. Then I got the word: George Wallace had been shot.
We were under a lockdown. As they got ready to perform emergency surgery on Governor Wallace, my team in the medical supply department prepared all of the surgical instruments—we put them together, packaged them, sterilized them.
One of the Alabama security officers asked if he could see what was in the instrument pack, I guess for security reasons. I showed him everything, and then he asked me to repack the instruments and sterilize them again so they could be sent right up to the operating room. He followed every procedure and every step. With a man of Governor Wallace’s stature being shot, they had to take all the necessary precautions.
Employee: 1964-1996, 2002-present
I first started at Holy Cross Hospital in 1964. I was still in the Army, waiting for a discharge, and my plan was to apply to the Montgomery County Police Department.
But Sister Laurencita, Holy Cross Hospital’s administrator at the time, was one of the reasons I changed my mind. She always made you feel like you were a part of the family. She’d make it a point to come up to the employees and ask, “How are you doing, how’s your family and is everything okay?” My wife and I decided, well, I’m going to go ahead and stay here at Holy Cross Hospital. This is a hospital with professionalism and true dedication.
Holy Cross Hospital means an awful lot to me. I’ve spent almost half of my life here. After I retired in 1996, I came back part time in 2002. That is how much I have enjoyed and loved working at Holy Cross Hospital.