Born in Massachusetts, Pauline spent most of her life on the East Coast, with no intention of leaving, but after 30 years in Virginia, she felt the call on her heart was too great to ignore, and she relocated to El Paso in 2016. Pauline first visited El Paso in 2013 on a border awareness trip sponsored by her church in Charlottesville, Virginia. As a freelance writer, she felt attracted to visit the southern border to write and learn about immigration firsthand. But the Holy Spirit had additional plans. The experience so moved her that Pauline returned to El Paso to volunteer for several months at a time – first as a TAU volunteer with the School Sisters of St. Francis, and again in late 2014 through the end of April 2015, as a lay volunteer accompanying asylum seekers at houses of hospitality organized under the auspices of El Paso’s Catholic-based Annunciation House. She continued to accompany asylum seekers until the first half of 2019 when the situation changed even more drastically for those seeking asylum at our ports of entry.

Before following her passion to serve the immigrants, Pauline had a writing/editing business for more than 25 years. Now she writes from the border and is working on a book about the greater El Paso community’s amazing, abundant generosity in welcoming the stranger during the influx of migrant families. Her articles and essays appear on various Catholic online publications, including National Catholic Reporter and US Catholic. She also blogs about her spiritual journey in accompanying the marginalized.