The Brave Debutante With Leprosy

The inspiring but heartbreaking story of a woman who caught a feared disease and worked to end its stigma

Sister Hilary Ross with a patient at Carville / Credit: National Hansen’s Disease Museum

Edwina Parra was 19-year-old debutante in New Orleans, newly engaged to a medical student, when she saw a doctor about a symptom that puzzled her — pale rose spots on her thighs that had appeared months earlier.