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Sister Melinda

Rebel with a cause

Rebellion can manifest itself in many ways: dyed hair, motorcycles, fights with parents, or, in the case of Melinda Lando, a career serving underprivileged children as a pediatric nurse while spreading God’s message.

She did it her way
Sister Melinda's path to becoming a Deaconess in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) differs from many. She grew up in Strausstown, PA, with strict Pennsylvania-Dutch parents. Sister Melinda was drawn to church vocations very early in life. “My original goal was to be the first Lutheran woman pastor, but when Elizabeth Platt beat me to it, I needed to change my goal,” notes Sister Melinda.

After graduating from high school, she moved to Reading, Pennsylvania with her family. There, they joined Hope Lutheran Church, where she met her first deaconess, Sister Millicent Drake. Sister Millicent was both Sister Melinda's first encounter with the Deaconess Community and the realization of her vocational call. During the summer of 1972, Sister Melinda accompanied Sister Millicent, along with other youth from Hope Lutheran Church, to help in the clean-up of flood ravaged Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

"I can remember how caring and compassionate Sister Millicent was," says Sister Melinda. "I knew from then on, I wanted to be a deaconess.” A desire she kept from her parents at first.

It wasn’t until her first year of college that Sister Melinda informed her parents of her desire to be a deaconess. Her parents’ lack of support only further deepened Sister's Melinda's desire to join the Community. Four years later, in May of 1976, Sister Melinda graduated from West Chester State College with a B.S. in Health & Physical Education.

Degree in hand, Sister Melinda again shocked her parents by telling them she had been accepted at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago (LSTC) and would be starting classes there in the fall. "I didn't have any money, or the slightest clue how I would pay for school," recalls Sister Melinda. "My poor father; I'm surprised he didn't have a heart attack right there!"

It was at LSTC that Sister Melinda really hit her stride. She immersed herself in her studies, even serving as sacristan her senior year. In June of 1978 Sister Melinda graduated with a Master of Arts in Religion in the area of religious education.

Joining the family
Upon graduation from LSTC, Sister Melinda then spent the summer of 1978, along with two other deaconess candidates, at the Deaconess Center in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania. The program – called the three month seminar - was aimed at spiritual and communal formation. The days were filled with Bible study, learning about the history of the Deaconess Community, and caring for the retired sisters living at the Center.

While at the Center, Sister Melinda spent a week with a Deaconess in active service, Sister Nora Frost. In August, 1978, she was invested and was given the title "Sister." Sister Lando then embarked on a one-year internship in Allentown, Pennsylvania, serving as a parish deaconess and chaplain at a rehabilitation hospital and home for the disabled.

On August 5, 1979 Sister Melinda was consecrated to the Office of Deaconess and started her first call at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. There, she served a congregation of over 1,500 members as Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministry.

"I enjoyed my time at Trinity, but I always felt something was missing,” notes Sister Melinda.

Nursed into a career
Not being one to do anything conventionally, Sister Melinda raised quite a few eyebrows in the Deaconess Community by enrolling into the nursing program at Gwynedd-Mercy College (run by the Sisters of Mercy) rather than attending the Lankenau School of Nursing, which was founded and run by the sisters of the Deaconess Community.

After passing her nursing boards and earning a B.S. in Nursing, Sister Melinda found herself in that all too familiar position of trying to figure out what to do next.

In 1985, the call she had been waiting for came. This time it was in the form of a position as pediatric staff nurse at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in the South Bronx, New York. Serving a poor, Latino demographic and working with nurses from all over the world, Sister Melinda gained experiences that differed greatly from her life in Pennsylvania.

"It was tough at times, convincing them that 'this nun' could work as a nurse. But as soon as I started nursing I knew this is what I was called to do and where I was called to do it," remembers Sister Melinda. "My goal was to bring the love of Christ to my patients and their families."

A Mark in her life
Soon after she started working at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, Sister Melinda met one of the most special people of her life. A small boy, of African-American and Puerto Rican parents, named Mark, made an immediate impression on Sister Melinda. From the beginning it was clear that Mark wasn't an ordinary patient for Sister Melinda. Mark had cerebral palsy and seizures due to a traumatic birth. He had trouble eating and spent his time in a mist tent to help with his breathing. He interacted with no one. "I can remember watching him as he slept and wondering if he had dreams, and if they were the same as mine,” Sister Melinda recalls.

What began as spending a couple extra minutes with Mark at the end of her shift soon blossomed into more. In 1987, Sister Melinda took the two year old Mark home as a foster child. Seven years later she legally adopted him.

Mark thrived in a loving and nurturing home. Although he was in a wheelchair, unable to talk and depended totally on others for all his needs, Mark was full of life. "Mark's attitude, his smile, were both contagious. You would just look at him and see the hope and passion he had".

Unfortunately, Mark's respiratory problems grew worse due to his cerebral palsy, and he died in January, 2003. "Even though he is gone, I just think of the lives that he touched. I know that now he is healthy in heaven," says Sister Melinda.

New horizons
Never one to play it safe, and ten years after coming to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital, serving in various nursing and administrative positions, Sister Melinda returned to graduate school. In 1994 she received her Masters in Nursing from Columbia University School of Nursing and was now qualified to work as a pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP).

Sister Melinda then began serving at Bronx-Lebanon as a PNP in the newborn nursery, then as a medical provider to the children in the infectious disease service – working with those children infected with or exposed to HIV.

Sister Melinda's current position is at one of Bronx-Lebanon's school based clinics, Public School (P.S.) 64. Here she serves over 800 underprivileged Latino, Black, and African children. She is the sole health care provider – providing a variety of services: physical exams, immunizations, treatments and medicines for all sorts of illnesses and much needed TLC when school work becomes overwhelming.

"It is hard to believe that I have celebrated 20 years of service at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital. Time sure flies!" reflects Sister Melinda.

"People ask me all the time, 'Why didn't you go all the way? Why didn't you become a doctor or a pastor?' I tell them it is because I wanted the day-to-day interaction with the kids," Sister Melinda beams. "I am out in the world, helping to spread God's love to children who, because of their circumstances, might have a hard time believing that God loves them. I am here to show them He does."

"To me, being a Deaconess is not just a title, but a way of life. It is who I am." Sister Melinda Lando is a terrific example of what hard work, faith and a healthy dose of rebellion can achieve.