Anna Ho, General Manager of Administrative Services knows the history of HHH well and even keeps a newspaper cutting about its opening from the
South China Morning Post in 1955. She shared some of the stories from its rich and colourful past.
Waves of compassion from overseas
When the Haven of Hope Tuberculosis Sanatorium was lack of money in its early days of construction, a missionary returned home to the US and told his local primary school the story of the refugees in Rennie’s Mill. One little boy was so moved. He said he would send all his Christmas money to Hong Kong. His appeal spread from class to class and school to school until, in 1955, a bill of exchange for US$25,000 arrived in Hong Kong to keep the sanatorium afloat.
A familiar story to Norwegians
One of the founders and the first matron of HHH was Sister Annie Skau Berntsen, a Norwegian nurse and missionary who travelled to Hong Kong to care for sick refugees and their children in Rennie’s Mill. Her work at the hospital was featured on Norwegian television and tour groups from Norway made special visits to the hospital.
A harmonious tradition
Every Christmas Eve since the founding of the hospital, staff members hold candlesticks with lit candles and go around the wards singing carols. The ‘Lights on Christmas’ tradition continues to this day and staff also sing hymns in different wards outside work hours to comfort patients once a month. In this picture, Sister Annie Skau Berntsen wears a Norwegian gown and blesses patients on one of the Christmas Eve visits.
A gift of life
In 1957, Sister Annie Skau Berntsen prayed with a young pastor for his fiancée who was dying. After surgery, the woman recovered and married the pastor, later giving birth to two children. The thankful pastor gave the hospital six Nerium oleanders – signifies life and hope – and planted them in the garden next to the gazebo, which still stands on the hospital site.
