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Sr. Rosemarie Tedesco, SHCJ at Calcutta House, Philadelphia, PA
“Three more weeks, Sister,” says Fred, who has been a resident of Calcutta House for five years. As Sr. Rosemarie Tedesco, SHCJ drives several Calcutta House residents to a treatment program they attend, Fred is telling her of his upcoming trip to Atlantic City. With obvious pride, he tells us that he will be bringing Las Vegas to him in Atlantic City, since he is unable to travel there himself.
 Calcutta House is a residential facility for individuals with HIV/AIDS. The organization exists to accompany individuals with HIV/AIDS on their life’s journey, assisting in giving meaning to both living and dying and encouraging the self-empowerment of each person to live, rather than give up on life. As treatment modalities of HIV/AIDS have advanced, the disease has evolved from a fatal illness to a chronic illness, significantly changing the lives of the population that Calcutta House serves. While Calcutta House still serves those in the middle to late stages of HIV/AIDS, it is also now a place where many individuals come to rebuild their lives and move onto more independent living.
 Sr. Rosemarie, who began working at Calcutta House in July of 2001 as the Activities and Office Assistant, finds working with the residents to be “refreshing and humbling,” and states, they “are nothing, if not, honest.” Sr. Rosemarie transports the residents of Calcutta House to the many activities planned for them, including trips to the bowling alley, movies, and mall in the van she has learned how to drive for this purpose. She now gets many of the residents to the places they need to be. “I’m happy to reconnect with the city (Philadelphia, Pa.) and I love being with the residents this way.”
Sr. Rosemarie, who spent over 25 years as an educator and 13 years working for the generalate in Rome, knew very little about HIV/AIDS before joining the staff at Calcutta House. “I just knew what most people know from reading about it. I never knew anyone who had AIDS, but I knew from the movies, I guess, how terrible their deaths are. I also knew how shunned they are – that people are afraid of them. So given all of that, I thought, ‘this is a place where religious need to be.’”
Sr. Rosemarie finds a great deal of challenge in her job and is often inspired by the courage she sees in so many of the residents, “They are such fighters and have so many issues to deal with. They have been to hell and back…this is a death-dealing illness. She goes on to tell how working at Calcutta House has helped her grow, “The residents stretch me in so many ways – they’re such good folks and the staff are so dedicated. They really have a mission, it’s not a job for any of them.” And it’s certainly not just a job for Sr. Rosemarie either.
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