After finishing grade 11 on the Island, I was
invited by the Sisters of St. Joseph to continue my education at their
boarding school, St. Margaret's in Kirkfield, ON. After the completion
of grade 12, my next step was to join the Sisters in Peterborough. On
September 8, 1961 I arrived at Mount St. Joseph in Peterborough to
begin my life as a Sister of St. Joseph.
During three years of my formation years in
Novitiate and Juniorate I was in charge of the kitchen of Mount St.
Joseph. It was a time that prepared me for the future as I had to
learn to make many decisions and to relate to many different types of
people.
After completing Grade 13, I went on to St.
Joseph=s School of Nursing in
Peterborough and graduated in 1971. My first mission as a nurse was to
St. Joseph’s Hospital in Estevan, SK. On the Saskatchewan prairie on a
clear day you can see forever!
After two and a half years in Saskatchewan, I
accepted the challenge of serving at our hospital in Itacoatiara,
Brazil. The weather in Saskatchewan was about 40 below when I left, so
that when I reached Miami, upon seeing the beautiful palm trees
blowing in the wind, it seemed as thought I was in heaven. Before
going on to the Amazon jungle, I spent three months in Rio de Janeiro
studying Portuguese. It just happened that this was Carnival time in
Rio, so a good time was had by all of the students!
After completing my language training, I joined
our other Sisters working in Itacoatiara and surrounding communities.
There I was mostly involved in health education, working with mothers
who had undernourished children and doing pastoral visits in the
communities of the Prelature of Itacoatiara.
In 1997 I asked to go to Zambia, where we had two
Sisters teaching in Mbala, I then returned to Canada to spend a few
months at our Senior Citizens Home in Regina, SK, helping with the
daily duties of the house until my visa for Zambia arrived.
In1998 the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
and Mary accepted me on their “Home Based Care Team’ for people living
with HIV/AIDS. This was a great challenge as the HIV Drugs were not
available until about 2006. It
was difficult to see so much suffering for the patients and their
families.
In 2007 I moved on to Mozambique, where a group
of four sisters from Brazil (Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery)
welcomed me. It was a nice change to be in contact with the Brazilians
and the Portuguese language again. We lived in the town of Mocimboa da
Praia, right on the Indian Ocean. As an Islander, it was good to be
near the ocean again. At Mocimboa da Praia I worked in the HIV/AIDS
department at the local hospital. It was very different from Zambia,
but there were just as many challenges as there were new cases of HIV
positive people each day. While in Mocimboa da Praia I also met with a
small Christian Community on the week-ends and visited the prison.
But life goes on…
On September 3, 2011, I am hoping to arrive in Tanzania to
begin a new Mission with the Sisters of St Joseph of Chambery at
Songea.
