When I heard the dreadful news about Sister Mary, our family was in San Francisco dropping off her two former students to college. I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. She was the most honest and divine light I have ever known.
Every child who had Sister Mary in 4th grade was in for a year of something that we as parents couldn’t even put our finger on. Our kids were going to get a lifelong lesson in kindness, honesty, pureness and genuine love for all creatures big and small, which seemed somehow elusive in this world filled with the cacophony of undesirable media messages, scandalous clerical accusations and very real economic pessimism. Through it all, we knew there was goodness in the world every time we saw Sister Mary’s smile. One of the many things Sister Mary taught my kids is really tugging at my heart right now. Every time a siren would go by, she would tell the kids to stop what they were doing and say a prayer for the safety of the person to whom the sirens were heading for. I choose to think that over all the years she taught every child to do that, there had to be lots of people who prayed when they heard those sirens. I am certain that Sister Mary was embraced by those prayers as she began her journey into the arms of her beloved God.
Go mbeannai Dia duit (May God Bless You), Irish Rose.
Laureen Sills