The Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home in Atlanta is one of seven free homes for incurable cancer patients in six states run by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, also called the Servants Of Relief For Incurable Cancer.

The order began because of the work of Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, a daughter of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Despite her comfortable life, Rose became determined to help the poor suffering from cancer. The disease was thought to be contagious and poor patients were often abandoned by their families and friends.

In 1896, after some medical training, she rented tenement rooms in New York City and began nursing impoverished cancer patients in their homes or in hers.

In 1898, she was joined by a young artist, Alice Huber. Other women came to share the work. Financial support began to arrive and by 1899, a building was purchased to house the growing ministry.

That same year the women were received into the Third Order of St. Dominic. In 1900 they became a new religious community, the Congregation of St. Rose of Lima.

The Atlanta home was founded in 1939 by Alice Huber, now Mother Rose Huber, OP, in what had been the Hebrew Orphan’s Home. The present facility was completed on the same property in 1973.

Each of the “good patients” is to be treated so that in Rose’s words, “if our Lord knocked at the door we would not be ashamed to show what we have done.”