A lifetime of memories at St. Joseph's: Celebrating Rose Seleska

As St. Joseph Campus undergoes demolition, few people can reflect on its history quite like Rose Seleska. Having first walked through its doors in 1966, Rose is Mission Health's longest-serving employee and one of the few people whose career spans nearly the entire modern history of St. Joe's.

Rose's connection to St. Joe's began as a teenager. Before she was an employee, she volunteered as a Candy Striper.

Back then, volunteers had different names. Younger volunteers were known as Candy Stripers, delivering mail, flowers, magazines and snacks to patients. Older volunteers were called Pink Ladies, recognizable in their pink uniforms and known for offering comfort and support throughout the hospital.

The Sisters who worked at St. Joe's left a lasting impression on Rose. She remembers Sister Dolores teaching her the basics of patient care and helping guide her through the early days of her career.

She also remembers a small Madonna statue that sat in a window on her unit. Each week, Rose took home the decorative scarf draped around the statue, washed it, starched it, ironed it and returned it to the hospital.

"It was just something we did," Rose said.

Those small acts of care reflected the culture of St. Joe's, where staff members looked after not only their patients but also one another.

Not long after Rose began working at the hospital, a young orderly named Fred Seleska joined the staff.

"I said to myself, 'I'm going to marry him,'" Rose recalled.

She did.

The couple married and built a life together. All three of their sons were born at St. Joe's. Rose still remembers visiting the nursery window to admire newborn babies, including her own, a tradition that has long since disappeared from modern hospitals.

Over the decades, Rose witnessed tremendous changes in healthcare. She started as a nurse aide and later became a certified Health Unit Coordinator, a role she loved. She learned telemetry, managed patient records and surgery schedules, coordinated appointments and helped keep busy nursing units running smoothly.

Her dedication earned her recognition as Health Unit Coordinator of the Year, an honor that reflected the respect she earned from colleagues throughout her career.

She remembers a time before electronic records, when patient information was handwritten and glass thermometers were sent through the hospital to be cleaned and reused. She worked through decades of change while helping maintain the personal connections that made St. Joe's special.

Yet when asked what she remembers most, her answer is simple.

"I enjoyed my work there," she said. "It was fun. I met a lot of nice people."

Today, Rose continues caring for patients and families as part of the team at CarePartners Hospice Solace Center. While her role has changed over the years, her commitment to serving others has remained the same.

From her days as a Candy Striper and nurse aide at St. Joe's to supporting families at Solace Center, Rose has spent nearly six decades caring for the people of Western North Carolina.

As St. Joseph Campus enters its next chapter, Rose's story serves as a reminder that the hospital's legacy is not found only in its walls. It lives on in the people who worked there, the families who grew there and the caregivers who continue that mission today.

For Rose, St. Joe's was more than a workplace. It was where she built a career, met her husband, welcomed her three sons into the world, formed lifelong friendships and discovered a calling to serve others. And through her work at CarePartners Hospice Solace Center, she continues to provide comfort, compassion and support to families during some of life's most meaningful moments.