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NRL News
Pro-Life
Movement Like Second Family to Walshes It took all of about 15 seconds into a conversation with Irene and John Walsh for the word “family” to crop up. Irene, who is NRLC’s accounting manager, says she feels as if she “grew up” at NRLC, which gave Irene her first professional job after she came to the U.S. from the Philippines in 1981. It was to her NRLC “family” in 1996 that she introduced her husband, John. John Walsh, sensing the same camaraderie and commitment, is now NRLC’s director of records. The three youngest of their four children—Dee Dee, Daniel, Emily, and Elizabeth—each spent their first year in the office, held and coddled by the women. “Our kids call them ‘Lola,’ which means ‘grandmother’ in the Philippine language,” Irene says. “You work so long and so intently together that the women in the office have become like relatives.” And if all that wasn’t enough to knit a close sense of one-ness, there was the magnificent response to a family tragedy. In 2003, coming back from the NRL Convention in North Carolina, the Walshes were in a serious car accident. Irene’s mother died and Elizabeth and Emily were rushed to the trauma center. John, Irene, Dee Dee, and Irene’s dad were taken to a different hospital. Irene called NRLC and then-Political Director Carol Tobias volunteered to go to North Carolina to help. “While we were in the hospital, Carol watched over Elizabeth and Emily,” Irene said. Carol also kept vigil while the rest of the family attended the funeral of Irene’s mother. Pro-lifers from both North and South Carolina also pitched in and helped the family during this traumatic time, said John. “It was amazing how many people the accident touched,” he said, “how far-reaching the effects.” So how is it to attend an NRL Convention (Irene has been to 22 and John to 12)? “It’s really hard work, but it’s like a reunion,” John says. While there are many of the same faces year to year, “at the same time, since the convention is held all over the country, you see new people every year,” Irene added. John seconded his wife’s thoughts. “And that allows you to see the Movement’s strength, whether it be in Missouri or Wisconsin or North Carolina, or any of a dozen other places,” he said. “You can just feel the dedication.” What makes NRLC so unique for the Walshes goes beyond having the chance to work in offices 15 feet apart. “Our kids enjoy all the activities that are a part of us working at the national office—the annual January 22 gathering of Catholic youth at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C., the March for Life, and, especially, the NRL Conventions,” John says. John and Irene are transparently proud of their oldest daughter, Dee Dee, a high school senior, for her deep and long-standing involvement in the Movement. Dee Dee has spoken at the last three National Teens for Life conventions, which run concurrently with the NRL Convention. She has been an active participant at Teen Leadership Summits held in Washington, D.C. In addition, Dee Dee is also a spokesperson for her pro-life group at Holy Cross high school in Maryland. As we closed our conversation, I asked the Walshes if they had any final thoughts about their experience at NRLC. Irene reflected for a moment and said, “I feel as if I have been nurtured as a person, developing in ways I wouldn’t have expected.” John agreed that both of them are deeper, more committed people for having worked here. “All the people at National Right to Life are here for the same reason—to protect innocent life.” He said he had held many other jobs previously but none of them were filled with the kind of noble people John found at NRLC. Perhaps the greatest blessing of all from working at NRLC is that it meant that all parts of their lives—family, faith, and job—could mesh and intersect in a powerful way. Nodding her head for emphasis, Irene concluded, “It was what God wanted me to do on earth.” |