Photo by Ivey Noojin

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Sister Kathy Weber of the Holy Cross Resource Center doesn’t want any praise for the work she’s done, but several organizations, including Seabury Resources for Aging, think she deserves plenty.

At an awards ceremony scheduled for September 16, Seabury, which provides affordable services and housing options for seniors in the D.C. area, will honor Weber with a Leadership in Aging award for her service at the Holy Cross Resource Center.

“There are so many people that really do something important,” Weber said. “I don’t really do much at all.” 

But that’s not quite true. Since the age of 18, Weber has dedicated herself to helping others. 

That’s when she joined the Sisters of the Holy Cross, a Roman Catholic congregation of women who respond to the needs of others, much to her mother’s chagrin. 

At the Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Weber had promised her mother she’d go to college for two years, but at the end of her first year at Dunbarton College, an institution sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Cross, she felt she couldn’t wait any longer.  

Finding her path

Growing up in a “tiny little town” near Buffalo, New York, Weber was excited to travel and have assignments in New York City, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. By 1986, Weber had settled in Montgomery County. 

Weber noticed people who were caring for others and asked, “What’s happening with the [patients’] families?” When she discovered a lack of support for them, she worked to establish the Holy Cross Resource Center in Silver Spring in 1992. Since then, she has run their program for caregivers. 

Weber leads seven caregiver support groups each week, involving more than 200 people over the course of a month. One group has always met by phone, but in light of the coronavirus, all will be conducted that way for the time being.

Even though these sessions are scheduled to last an hour and a half, they often last for two hours or more.

“That’s really what I think I’m here for: to bring a group together that can listen to each other,” Weber said. “They can talk to people who have the same needs as they do, who understand what they’re saying.” 

While most of the attendees are from Montgomery County, the caregiver support group is open to all. 

Weber has supported people from Prince George’s County, Washington, D.C., northern Virginia and even Tahiti. She tries to be available for anyone at any time, made easier by the fact that she lives only a block away from the Center. 

In addition, Weber maintains and expands the caregiver resource library, crafts a newsletter several times a year, and provides one-on-one advice both in-person and via telephone.

Weber acknowledges that convincing caregivers to take care of themselves is especially difficult, but she strives to do her best. Her motto is “Let whatever you do today be enough.”