After more than 30 years as a registered nurse on the oncology floor at St. Joseph’s Health Hospital in Syracuse, Janice Viau found herself on the same unit—not as a caregiver, but as a patient battling metastatic cancer.
Grounded by a lifetime of faith and experience, Viau expressed a desire to give her heart fully to Jesus Christ. She was familiar with the Seventh-day Adventist message through her mother, a longtime member of the Westvale Seventh-day Adventist Church until her death several years earlier.
While hospitalized, Viau requested a visit from Pastor Giovanni Esposito, formerly of the Westvale church and now serving at Split Rock, along with Joan Payne, church elder and a Faith Community Nurse. The visits provided meaningful spiritual support, during which Viau expressed her desire to be baptized. Because of her declining health, baptism at the church was not possible.
Viau was also visited by Pastor Ralph Featherstone (pictured together), the first Adventist chaplain to serve at St. Joseph’s Health Hospital. Through several conversations, the two discussed her spiritual journey and wishes. As Viau’s condition worsened, Featherstone shared her final request with the nursing staff—many of whom had once worked alongside her—that she be baptized by immersion.
The nurses responded without hesitation.
On Monday, Sept. 15, Viau was transported by wheelchair to the labor and delivery unit, where she was baptized by immersion in a birthing tub—the first immersion baptism at the hospital. The service was witnessed by nursing staff members, Viau’s sister and niece, and a Catholic hospital chaplain who read Scripture. It was a deeply moving spiritual celebration.
The setting proved especially meaningful. Just as new life begins in the birthing unit, Viau entered new life in Christ. Prior to the baptism, Payne formally accepted her into membership at the Split Rock Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The following day, the hospital’s Nursing Honor Guard held a ceremony releasing Viau from her nursing responsibilities. The service, held in a conference room filled with colleagues and friends, honored her years of faithful service. Viau attended in a recliner to ensure her comfort. At the conclusion of the ceremony, Esposito and Payne presented her with a certificate of baptism and a gift from the church.
On Friday evening of that week, Viau passed away.
Payne later received a message from Featherstone that read, “I am satisfied with the knowledge that she went to sleep in the Lord, and on that great getting-up morning, she will be raised when our Lord returns, at the sound of the trumpet, and we will meet her again.”
—Communication team, Split Rock church
