Mina MacKenzie

1904 - Allahabad

In September 1904, after being commissioned by The Women's Missionary Society of America, MacKenzie departed Boston. Her appointment was to the very primitive, crowded town of Allahabad, in Northeast India on the Ganges River. Missionary work, though begun in the mid-1800s with much success, had not reached Allahabad or the surrounding areas, Cawnporeor Fatehpur.

As the only doctor, MacKenzie was alone in the medical work. The climate was hot and uncomfortable. There was tremendous need for medical services, but no hospital. She rented a small mud shanty with a tiled verandah and crowds came to her for treatment. She had two Indian servants who helped her and they soon became very efficient and were able to provide care for many more suffering people. In less than a month, MacKenzie leased and occupied a roomy house on the outskirts of the town. She gathered more staff to cope with the ever increasing daily crowds. Although she hadn't yet learned the local language, her compassion and gentle touch drew all to her.

Her medical work seemed endless, yet she also found time to look to other important things. She started a school in an antiquated and dilapidated out-building and it was soon overcrowded with children. MacKenzie and her helpers repaired and white-washed the buildings inside and out and planted a garden with shrubs and flowers. It was a great uplift to brighten the mood of the people in those surroundings and many of the surrounding huts and homes did the same to their dwellings.

MacKenzie performed her first operation on a dressing table. There was no one to give the chloroform, no one to hand her instruments and the helper kept fainting. Yet, she was able to cope, with success.

1905 - Cawnpore

MacKenzie was moved to Cawnpore (Kanpur), where she did her work in the schools and in the hot sun. The way of travel was often by elephant or camel. Families often preferred male babies, because they could carry on the family farm, and did not require the dowry or the costly supplies and preparation for the bride to be ready for her wedding day. In desperate cases, some women would put the new born girl out on the bank of the Ganges, the sacred river, hoping that the gods of the sacred river would take care of the child. MacKenzie was not able to save the lives of all the baby girls, but ensured she baptized the infant orphans who didn't survive with her own name and provided them a Christian burial. The ones who survived were cared for in her own home.

MacKenzie felt the need to take strong action to counter local customs, rather than leaving these babies to the fate of the wild animals, crocodiles, and reptiles. MacKenzie, along with other Christians, finally persuaded the Government to pass laws forbidding the disposal of living children on the banks of the Ganges or in the river.

MacKenzie set up several outpost spots in the rural areas where she would go to administer medicines and treat the crowds who were always waiting. She also bought simple mud hut houses for the sick to live in near her, where she could give daily care more easily.

MacKenzie's other sister Mollie, also a doctor, joined her in Cawnpore in 1905 and they laboured together to supervise activities there as well as in Allahabad. In addition to medical work, no one in the town or villages could teach Hindi, so MacKenzie along with her helpers, taught the courses.

It was time for furlough for MacKenzie. Although she didn't wish to leave her sister Mollie alone, MacKenzie was asked to be a companion and helper for a sick missionary to Philadelphia. It was a successful journey. MacKenzie described the many successes and also presented the mountainous needs to the Board in New York and also in Philadelphia. She was promised help in building a $10,000 Hospital. The Mission sent $8,000 and MacKenzie was able to spend the remainder of her furlough in Nova Scotia and raised or gathered the remainder.

1907 - Fatehpur

Upon her return to India in 1907, MacKenzie was transferred to Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, a new station where there were over one thousand villages. Fatehpur itself had over 19,000 inhabitants and the great many surrounding villages also needed to be served. In addition, MacKenzie and her sister Mollie would need to help the previous Mission Compounds.

MacKenzie had been appointed Head Surgeon. She, with Mollie, had to conduct all the medical work, the preaching, the planning of the new buildings, the gardening, mechanical repairs, and the teaching and the training of all help. MacKenzie received a generous donation from Mr. Broadwell of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A. in memory of his wife, who was the founder of the Cincinnati Missionary Branch and was Vice-President of the Women's Union Missionary Society of America.. Ten acres of beautiful land with Mango groves was secured and on November 25, 1909, the cornerstone of the "Lily Lythe Broadwell Hospital" at Fatehpur was laid. In 1910, MacKenzie became Head Surgeon of the Broadwell Memorial Hospital and though not completely finished, the Hospital doors were opened to the public for use. The staff was increased, patients came hundreds of miles for relief from their sufferings and operations were performed with dignity, for the first time, in an operating room and closed doors.

To raise operating funds for the hospital, in 1910 MacKenzie wrote: "Many beds are already furnished for occupation and endowments of $600.00 each have been given. Would you not feel it a priceless privilege to perpetuate in that far-off land where women have been doomed to privation and suffering for countless ages? The memory of some loved one can live on by helping the cause in India. If this is not possible, perhaps you could send twenty-five dollars which will support a bed for a year. Smaller sums would provide medicines or other necessities in the Hospital. The support of a native nurse is fifty dollars annually and in assuming this, a double benefit is secured to a patient and to the young native girl who is training for a life of usefulness. How many who have known the untold value of trained nurses in case of serious illness would be willing to pass on this benefit to suffering women in India? We need the help of every friend." This message went back to New York to the "Women's Missionary Society - Organization of the Head Office of America." It was published in the "Missionary Link," the monthly Missionary booklet. The response was great and the Broadwell Hospital became fully equipped for all services.

MacKenzie helped set up many dispensaries in the rural parts of Allahabad, Fatehpur, Cawnpore (Kanpur) and Jhansi . In the outpost area one Dispensary was built with personal monies of the two sister doctors and other relatives and friends from home. It was named, "The Ann Murray Dispensary" in memory of their beloved mother and served many, many thousands of persons. Trained Nursing Helpers administered medicines and gave nursing care to those who came. The very sick had the care of either doctor, or perhaps both doctors. Operations were performed more skillfully in the new equipped operating area of the hospital.

In around 1911, Mollie completed her Medical and Bible work in Allahabad, Cawnpore and Fatehpur and later that year married Rev. Alexander Alonzo Smith in Pictou, Nova Scotia. MacKenzie worked on at Fatehpur as Head Surgeon, with the help of Miss Todd and Miss Campbell. She needed an ambulance and not having any way to get one, she built one with the help of the male workers.

MacKenzie was injured while waiting at a station for some sick persons to get off the train. An iron was dropped on her arm, breaking it. She set the arm at the station herself and proceeded to attend to the patients. She always traveled third class by train. She spent the time teaching and preaching to the passengers. They all crowded eagerly to her to hear her message.

Her love and kindness was uppermost in all her work. Compassion for the sick and suffering bound her to help at any time, day or night. A young wife waved at a childhood boyfriend in the presence of her husband. The husband grabbed her and was determined to kill her. She fled to MacKenzie in the middle of the night for help. She did not return to the husband. MacKenzie helped her to escape, sent her to school and then to nursing school. She became Superintendent of Nurses in a very large hospital. On one of MacKenzie's trips to the slums, she found a tiny child with syphilis sores all over her body. The child was homeless and no one wanted her, so MacKenzie took the child home, adopted her and brought her up. MacKenzie called her "My little fairy sparrow" and she became a nurse.

1917 Kumbh Mela Cholera Epidemic

Cholera had broken out in the city, and brought with it the imminent terror of death. The disease spread so quickly, it was given the name "The Pestilence that walks in darkness." In preparation to ward off an epidemic, disinfectants were poured into wells. Meat, milk and all food found uncovered was destroyed. Places were sprayed or burned. Yet in the late time of day, bodies were being buried in the prepared burying ground or carried to the Ganges River. MacKenzie worked twenty-four hours a day for four days with little or no sleep and practically nothing to eat. It was hard, she wrote, to compete with an enemy that wins the race of death in a few short hours. Working against time, she, herself, gave the early injections and left her assistants to carry out her orders. Clad in white, her arms bared to the elbows, no time for conversation, she bent over the prostrate figures. No thought of self, she continued to relieve the agony of pain. As for food, she dared only to eat what she, herself, had carefully prepared at home.

The subsiding of cholera was followed by a determined clean-up. The refugees were evacuated to a safe distance from their huts or hovels. The whole district was razed to ashes with the owner's consent. The rains came, the temperature fell and the cholera season was over. After a safe period of time, new huts began to take their place on the clean grounds. Dr. Mina did not relax her care until the infected were cured or buried.

1920 - Furlough in Waterside, NS

MacKenzie had set all affairs in order and the day set for farewells and leaving Fatehpur arrived. Her work was left in good hands. The station platform was crowded. Hundreds and hundreds of women who had not ever been seen in public, came to bid good-bye and to get a last glimpse of her. Some who came in horse-drawn vehicles pulled back the curtain to get a peek. Those who wore the purdah even lifted it to get a last look of their beloved doctor. It was the last time they would see her. She was to take a furlough of undetermined time. Her aged father, 94 years old, had begged her to come to him. She arrived in Waterside in late 1920 to be with her father, as he said, "for the rest of my days."

MacKenzie rented the unoccupied house of the Nichol brothers at the corner of Waterside and Three Brooks roads. In the early summer of 1921, MacKenzie prepared part of her house to be used as a private Hospital, where she along with an anesthetist from Pictou performed operations. The summer was very busy, yet successful for the patients and for MacKenzie. Through 1922, MacKenzie served a wide area of families. Some mothers came to her hospital for maternity care and for others, she went to the home.

On October 31, 1922, MacKenzie's father died and was buried at Seaboard Cemetery, Carribou River, beside his wife Ann. He was blessed in that his wish was granted.

MacKenzie now was free to return to India and she sailed from Quebec on May 12, 1923 for the plains of Central India. MacKenzie travelled on the Regina Steamship across the Atlantic Ocean to Liverpool, England and arrived on May 22. There, baggage was transferred to the Circassia, Anchor Line. The Circassia had only sixteen passengers aboard and few of these were going to India because of the hot season. The Circassia stopped at the Strait of Gibraltar, Port Said and Suez Canal, and continued through the Gulf of Suez to the Red Sea before heading south to the Gulf of Aden and across the Indian Ocean to Bombay. On June 18, three weeks after they had left Liverpool, the Circassia arrived in Bombay Harbour.

1923-1929 - Hatpipalya

In the summer of 1923, it was in Hat Piplia, thirty-five miles distant from Indore, that MacKenzie began her work under the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board of Canada. In 1925 when the United Church of Canada came into being she, with the Mission Compound at Hat Paplia and others, came under the United Church of Canada Board. MacKenzie's personal comforts never came first. Any money given for herself went to the mission where she felt the need was more important.

The Hospital was a two-storey brick building. The upper storey consisting of five rooms, accommodated Miss Coltart, Miss Glendenning (who was on furlough) and Dr. Mina MacKenzie. The lower part with an L-attached, contained a waiting room, a Dispensary, an operating room and wards, each to accommodate twenty patients. The nurses' quarters consisted of six small rooms, separated from the Hospital by a narrow courtyard. The staff consisted of two Indian women who were nurses, an Indian Bible woman, a Sub-Assistant Surgeon, Miss Coltart, R.N., and MacKenzie, Head Surgeon.

In 1925, back in Canada, church Union came into being. MacKenzie, with the Mission Hospital at Hat Piplia and others came under the Mission Board of the United Church of Canada. She now would serve under "The United Church Foreign Mission Board of Canada." She was very satisfied to be part of this new development among the Canadian Protestant Churches. India loved the word "United." She felt more money would be sent to the "Overseas work" because the overhead expenses of the Churches in Canada would be combined. This would leave some money free to be used for the crying need of the destitute for clothing, food and decent houses in the Eastern Countries. There was an ever increasing long and longer line of waiting persons at the Dispensary each time MacKenzie came.

While in M.P., MacKenzie worked in Hat Piplia, Indore, Ratlam and Dhar. They were not too far away by car and she was called many times to medical and surgical duties.

1929-1939 Neemuch

MacKenzie gathered her family together in the large cottage at Neemuch. She also adopted several more children during those last years before her retirement.

Neemuch was a well planned Mission Compound. Dr. Margaret MacKellar had guided the building of the Hospital and all the necessary rooms were arranged conveniently for working. The equipment and lamp and candle lighting in the O.R. was primitive. Operations needed to be performed with so little light, yet MacKenzie successfully performed many serious and difficult surgeries. After MacKenzie's death, her instruments and anything of use was sent to Neemuch.

Personal life

MacKenzie rescued multiple tiny infants from the banks of the Ganges River, but most were unable to survive. When MacKenzie bought the houses at Cawnpore (Kanpur), she rented one for herself and opened her first orphanage and trained an Indian woman to look after the children.

The Hindu-Muslim agitation made the work of the missionary more difficult, yet MacKenzie was able to preach and treat the many crowds. She had eight children when she left the compounds of Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh. They were Phillip, Kim, Kindar, Jim, Hari, David, Frank and Umedi (who became a doctor). In Kanpur, she adopted Lily, Lucy, Cherry and the three orphaned daughters of Kim (Mina, Mary and Vina who were named after MacKenzie and her two sisters). Kim had died of tuberculosis and his wife had predeceased him with the same disease. When MacKenzie was transferred from Uttar Pradesh to Madhya Pradesh, she brought the six Kanpur children with her and they later studied in Indore Mission School.

In M.P. MacKenzie worked in Hat Piplia (Hatpipalya), Indore, Ratlam, Dhar and Neemuch. During her time in Dhar, she adopted Tara, Sushila, Mona, Indira, Amina, Adina. These children studied in the Ratlam Mission School.

Her last mission post was in Neemuch, where she worked for 10 years between 1929-1939, before retiring and returning to Canada. While in Neemuch, MacKenzie adopted Mariam, Sarina, Rosie, Eric and Frederick Philip.

Of the forty-four children MacKenzie adopted in total, twenty-one grew to adulthood. Today, MacKenzie's legacy of love and compassion is being continued through the work of the Dr. Mina MacKenzie Memorial Trust Fund (http://www.minatrustfund.ca), a registered Canadian charity.