On Friday, September 22nd, Mercy girls and faculty arrived at school, eager to celebrate Mercy High’s founder, Catherine McAuley, for Mercy Day. The day’s celebrations began with mass in the chapel followed by a play of Mother McAuley’s life put on by the Senior class. Students and faculty left that day with the sprit of Mercy in their hearts as the Seniors put on yet another successful Mercy Day celebration. To the Mercy community, this day seemed to run flawlessly but for Senior Gracie Finn, this was not the case.
September 22nd began just like every other day for Gracie Finn. She woke up, got ready for school, and headed to Mercy. By the time she reached school, she noticed that she felt a little nauseous and had a stomach ache. She didn’t think much of it at the time and continued her day like normal.
After mass, Gracie left to set up for the play. At this point, her stomach ache had gotten stronger and she felt worse than that morning. Despite this, she pushed through and continued to prepare for the play. Right before the opening scene, she could no longer resist the nausea and had to run to the bathroom and throw up. Being the dedicated and determine she is, Gracie refused to let what she thought was simply a stomach bug take her away from her responsibilities in the play.
Gracie explained that she “felt like she was dying” throughout the entire play. Still, she decided to push through the rest of the play, Lo Sole Mio’s, and the Mercy Villa. Then when she returned home, she went to bed immediately. In the middle of the night, she was awoken by an unbearable pain in her side. She could barely move and had to crawl to the bathroom where she threw up and then to her mom’s room. There, she muttered the words, “Mom, I think I have appendicitis.”
The Finn’s rushed to the hospital where the doctors confirmed that Gracie did have appendicitis. Both Gracie and her mom weren’t too shocked at this news because they’ve had a family history of appendicitis where many members have been in situations such as Gracie’s and had to get their appendix removed. Luckily, Gracie’s case wasn’t dangerous enough to operate so they fixed her up with some morphine and antibiotics.
In the following days, Gracie was extremely sore but still went to school. Now, she is appendicitis free and hoping to never experience another appendix incident in the future.