DANDELIONS IN BLOOM

By Sr. Marie Clarkson OLM
Summer 2001

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The dandelion! What memories come to mind! Perhaps it’s the child in me, but this bright sunny face in a sea of waving green grass is to me above all a sign of spring and harbinger of good things. Perhaps this is why, in my more positive moments, I hold the dandelion as a symbol of Our Lady’s Missionaries.

Haven’t we all experienced, with surprise, the dazzling dandelion as it springs up seemingly overnight? This bearer of good news can be seen in many special ways within our community. Sister Mona Kelly was invited home from Brazil to receive the Order of Canada for her life’s work, including that of more recent years among street children in Brazil.

Sr. Elaine MacInnes

Can it really be that not one but two members of our community would be so honoured? Sister Elaine MacInnes has also been recognized for her life of ministry, culminating in aiding prisoners find a path to peace. She will accept the Order of Canada in the fall of 2001.

Tenacity

Those of us with manicured lawns will have experienced another aspect of dandelions. Perhaps this tenacity has made it possible to live through what must surely be called the turbulence of leaving our Clarendon Avenue home of 40 years. Our Lady’s Missionaries living on Robina Avenue can attest to this after opening their doors to the Sisters at Clarendon while the new central house at Leander is under renovation.

Sister Patricia Kay gracefully survived the cold outside and crowd inside during her short time of rejuvenation before returning to ministry in Nigeria.

To alleviate the bursting seams, Sister Noreen Kearns gratefully accepted the hospitality of the Christian Brothers who offered interim accommodations. Sister Noreen has recently retired from secretarial work at the Canadian Religious Conference of Ontario which no doubt means she is looking forward to a new ministry for her retirement years.

Sr. Mona Kelly is welcomed at St. Augustine Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario. While in Canada, Sr. Mona received a lot of support for her ministry among the poor in Brazil.

During this time Sister Elaine MacInnes, with her hearty laugh, received messages of congratulations on receiving the Order of Canada even as she completed her latest book. This she accomplished in the living room, a small version of Grand Central Station since all activity must pass through this hub of the house.

Sister Mona Kelly also seemingly found no difficulty receiving television and newspaper reporters as well as friends, amidst the hubbub. During her short stay in Toronto she thanked groups including the Catholic Women’s League, SHARE Agriculture Foundation (Sending Help and Resources Everywhere), and Catholic high schools in Brampton for supporting her ministry in Brazil. In her collaboration with these caring people, I am reminded of a child blowing on the white puffball of a dandelion in seed, watching these tiny parachutes scatter, wondering where they will land. What new life will spring forth?

An octogenarian, Sister Cathy Peco continues her ministry as a volunteer at St. Michael’s Hospital. To the delight of our community members in Toronto she continues to treat us to her specialty spaghetti and meatballs and ever-welcoming presence. What nutritional wonders and healing lie hidden in the leaves of the dandelion?

Sr. Cecile Turner and Sr. Doris MacDonell both registered nurses, minister to the poor and the elderly in New Amsterdam, Guyana

Sister Cecile Turner, on leave from Guyana, can vouch for the importance of this caring presence. She draws strength here and from family and friends even as she and the family, perhaps especially Patsy, an Ursuline Sister, accompany their sister Mary, also an Ursuline, on her last journey, the journey through terminal illness.

Sister Doris MacDonell continues her health ministry in New Amsterdam, Guyana, staying in touch with Sister Cecile through email while awaiting her return.

Before leaving for Brazil, Sister Clarice Garvey was part of the moving ‘scene,’ I’ll call it. She slept in the living room with her suitcases, containing all her earthly possessions, neatly packed and hidden behind the chesterfield. The tiny seed is unencumbered.

Sister Mary Gauthier, a member of our Leadership Team, had no place to lay her head, shall I say. In between visiting our missions in Brazil, the Philippines and Nigeria, she did what we call “mission awareness” in Canada, visiting various parish communities to tell them about our work. Upon her return from such jaunts, she might find her former nook occupied. Of course, she found another. Dandelions circumvent.

It’s no wonder that our Congregational Leader, Sister Frances Brady, moved from her make-do basement bedroom/office at Robina to our bright, beautiful new central house at Leander, even though renovations were not yet finished. Here, like a plant seeking sunlight, Frances’ special gifts of clarity and focus are hard at work for the good of the whole community. Already Leander is becoming a place of welcome and celebration of life.

Sister Rosemary Williamson offers her energy to this settling in, even as she learns new skills for her work with women’s groups in Nigeria. She is a part of the warm, damp soil which so facilitates germination.

Gift

We all know the beauty of a bouquet of dandelions offered in a child’s outstretched hand, with upturned face radiating delight. Gifts are offered and received. Sister Therese McDonald creatively accepts the challenges of each new day as she continues her ministry in community finances, grateful for this time of remission from bone cancer.

Our Lady’s Missionaries at their new central house on Leander Court in Toronto. L-R standing: Sr. Patricia Kay, Sr. Catherine Peco, and Leadership Team members Sr. Mary Gauthier and Sr. Joan Missiaen.
L-R seated: Sr. Noreen Kearns, Sr. Elaine MacInnes, Sr. Frances Brady (Congregational Leader), Sr. Therese MacDonald, Sr. Rosemary Williamson. Foreground: Sr. Lucia Lee and Sr. Christine Gebel.

While serving in leadership, Sister Joan Missiaen continues as director of our Maryglen residence, a place of affordable housing for 55 women in downtown Toronto. If you frequent the arts or your work takes you to the financial district of Toronto and you must continually face numerous street people on every corner, you will understand what an oasis the Maryglen is for many, made more so by the caring of each. The dandelion pushes through cracks in cement.

Sister Susan Moran’s ministry with Out of the Cold has spread like the seeds of the dandelion. These seeds have landed in rich soil—the hearts of people of good will, not respective of race or faith tradition. Does the dandelion not surprise us with joy?

I continue my ministry of pastoral care at Toronto East General Hospital, being touched by the spirit of many even as I reach out to them—sipping and savouring the goodness of aged dandelion wine.

Colleagues in ministry at Toronto East General Hospital, (L-R) Carol Stoddart, Sr. Marie Clarkson and Nita DeVenne, chaplains; and Reverend Theresa Han, Pastoral Care Coordinator.

Sr. Susan Moran----founder of Out of the Cold, an outreach to homeless people----stands vigil with two homeless men at the site where a street person died during the winter months. Toronto, Canada.

Staff party at Maryglen, Our Lady’s Missionaries’ place of affordable housing for women in downtown Toronto. Back row: L-R: Samantha Sill, Sr. Joan Missiaen (director), Sr. Marie Clarkson. Centre row L-R: Natercia Garcia, Sr. Susan Moran, Natalia Tavares, Elaine Burns. Front, L-R: Alice O’Grady, Liz Richards.

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