Holt Family Legacy Continues

The Holt family will never die. These are the words that best describe the Holt family and the sacrifice they made in Korea. This is not simply because Harry Holt and his wife Bertha Holt established the Holt International Children's Services, or because they stated in their wills the desire to be buried in Korea, but they also left one of their daughters behind to continue the family's important work.

Molly Holt (65) has been living in Korea for over 40 years yet she remains relatively unknown in the nation. Working in Holt Welfare Town located in Koyang, Kyonggi province, she spent most of her life helping seriously disabled people. She earned the nickname 'Little Holt'and 'mother of all disabled'.

Born the third daughter in a family with one boy and five girls, she first came to Korea in 1956 with ther parents. The Holt family initially entered the nation to adopt war orphans. At the time Molly Holt was 21, a recent graduate from Sacred Heart nursing college. In 1961, when her parents formed the Holt Welfare Town in Ilsan, Molly Holt decided to spend the rest of her life in Korea, looking after those in need.

Holt declined the married life in order to allow herself to fully commit to her sacred mission. She usually spent an average of two weeks to three months caring for the newly admitted and providing first-hand lessons to nurses on how to treat those in pain. As a result, her many patients always addressed her affectionately as 'our sister Molly'.

"Ms.Holt was a frugal woman. Everyone was surprised to see her sleeping in the same bed for the past 20 years," said Kim Kyung-joo chief administrator of Holt Center (45). "She was simply born to sacrifice for her neighbors and society."

Holt, who is currently visiting her birth house in Oregon, U.S., is expected to carry her mother's remains back to Korea where she will place them next to her father who is buried in the hillside of the Holt Center in Ilsan, Korea.

by Jeon Ik-jin