Releases

Twenty-nine years after her time with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Maggie Doyle Ball’s resume still reflects her JVC experience as a social worker at Visiting Homemakers Association of Jersey City, New Jersey. Today, Maggie, a wife and mother of four--including an FJV; is a hospice care managing nurse at Grace Health Care in New Jersey.

Maggie considers JVC a turning point in her career. She worked for AT&T after college, but always dreamed of becoming a nurse. Her JVC experience led to many years as a social worker. Then, in response to life experiences, including a son with cancer and her mother's death in hospice care, in her late forties Maggie went to nursing school on a scholarship.

She sees her work as deeply spiritual. "I seek to be with each patient when they die. It's very spiritual to 'give permission' to die, to help family members let a loved one die." She helps families see how beautiful death can be, and herself likens it to a rebirth, similar to witnessing a woman give birth to a baby.

She takes delight in her children and all their pursuits--a son who is a dairy farmer, another who is a national champion cross-country runner, one still in college, and her FJV daughter, Cara Ball (Sacramento '07), who now teaches in Massachusetts.

Cara was a JV exactly 25 years after Maggie. Her mother is proud that she just gave a talk on community at the FJV Boston Chapter retreat this fall. When Maggie wonders just how she engages JVC's values even now, Cara is quick to see the connections. Choices to be simple were obvious. The spirituality of Maggie’s work; her community of friends, parish, work and family.  Social justice?  Maggie is active locally with efforts to keep hazardous industries out of crowded communities in New Jersey.

Maggie and her husband, Bill, still have dreams. Maybe they will join Maryknoll. Maybe they will live in the country. Maybe they will find a way for Maggie to use her nursing and Bill to use his hands in service to those who are poor.

What advice does Maggie have for JVs as they begin this year "Through experience, you learn what path to travel--it might be the hardest path. JVC does ruin you."