In April 1990 I went to San Rafael hospital to do my “rural year” as a nurse. There, I began to find out about the life and work of Saint John of God, and for various reasons I felt identified with him. My daily work was caring for elderly adults and people with chronic kidney failure, where I heard so many life stories that I became even more sensitive to the pain of people suffering.

Teaching was always part and parcel of my life project, and when I completed my rural year began this experience in the San Rafael School in Bogotá. I was very lucky to be able to teach about 300 students, giving me the opportunity to learn so much, and meet challenges and enriching experiences and to come to know people who taught me and guided me.

Then I was offered the opportunity to establish the San Rafael Nursing Auxiliaries School at La Ceja-Antioquia, in May 1994. My vocation as a Nurse and Teacher was strengthened, and at the same time the charism of Saint John of God penetrated into my soul, into my heart and into my very being as a member of a family, a community and an Institution.

These 20 years spent in this School have supported me to enable me to grow as a person and thereby perpetuate the formation of young men and women wishing to devote their lives to the service of the sick.