Covenant Hospital places time capsule at Hope Tower to be opened in 2073
Members of the Covenant Health System gathered outside in the courtyard of the Hope Tower to send a message to future healthcare workers nearly 50 years from now.
That is, members of the hospital placed numerous items of significance into a time capsule that will be opened in 2073 — 49 years from now. Those items were:
A Bible with handwritten notes from the leaders of Covenant Health & Covenant Medical Center.
A brick from the original Methodist Hospital women’s center.
Blueprints for the construction of Hope Tower.
Vials of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
A caregiver t-shirt showing Covenant's partnership as the official hospital of Texas Tech Athletics.
A photo album filled with pictures of Covenant Medical Center caregivers and patients.
And a book about Covenant's history entitled "Faith & Healing: Celebrating Covenant Health’s Century of Caring."
The reason why? Kim Turner, vice chairwoman of the Covenant Health System Board of Directors, said the newly constructed Hope Tower marks the rededication of the hospital's continuing commitment to providing care.
"This building and structure and all of the people in it are a blessing," Turner said. "I just think there's no better time to memorialize that with a time capsule."
It also hearkens back to 2018, when the hospital demolished the old hospital tower — formerly named West Tower.
Turner said that when crews were demolishing the tower, they discovered a 1952 time capsule in the wall that contained the morning and evening editions of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, vials of medication, and something special.
"The list of bricklayers was one of the most really most special things that was in there," Turner said. "Those were the men that built this hospital, made it beautiful and made it a place where our caregivers can give wonderful, amazing health care to our patients."
When asked why the vials of the COVID-19 vaccine — Walter Cathey, regional CEO of Covenant Health System, said it tells a story of a time that impacted not only Lubbock but the globe and also reminds those who open the capsule why Covenant — formerly two different hospitals — came about.
"The interesting thing from our heritage, the way the Sisters of St. Joseph actually got into health care, was actually because of the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918," Cathey said. "Their original attempt when they came over from France, was actually to be in education, but what the sisters are really about is finding a need in the community and solving it no matter what it is at that point in time."
So the vial hearkens back to a time when the sisters created St. Mary's Hospital to help the community and then formed a "covenant" with Methodist Hospital to serve a larger region of West Texas.
Cathey pointed back to the day, marking the significance of the hospital rededicating its commitment to its heritage and mission, having renamed all the hospital's towers after the pillars of hope, mercy, peace and faith.
"Our legacy is built on the Sisters of St. Joseph — the Sisters of Providence," Cathey said. "We as lay people carry on that mission, that heritage. And so when you really look at us putting together a time capsule today, you're really kind of leaving your own legacy and your own heritage in there, saying 'This is where we were at this point in time. I hope you continue to build upon these footsteps and built it to be a better product for our community.'"
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock Covenant Health places 50-year time capsule at Hope Tower
