This Memorial Day: Take time to Remember

“My friends lie here … Pilgrims from other lands … heroines of unknown sacrifices … obscure apostle unaware of the magnitude of their influence.”

This quote, penned by Sister of Providence Community Historian Sister Eugenia Logan, (RIP), in reference to those buried in the SP cemetery, came to mind as I tried to collect my thoughts about celebrating Memorial Day.

Like many people and places throughout the country, the Sisters of Providence will place a flag on the gravesite of those sisters/chaplains who served our country in some branch of military service and/or as nurses during a time of conflict.

Eleven Sisters of Providence ministered as nurses during the Civil War: Sisters St. Felix Buchanan, Helena Burns, Frances Ann Carney, Athanasius Fogarty, Eugenia Gorman, Sophie Glenn, Mary Francis Guthneck, Henrietta MacKenzie, Mary Louise Malone, Mary Rose O’Donaghue and Matilda Swinley.

Four sisters served in some capacity before they entered the Congregation: Sisters Francis de Lourdes Reilly, RIP, Ruth Sondhaus, RIP, Catherine Hartman, RIP, and Patricia Linehan.

Two offered assistance during the Vietnam War as Sisters of Providence – Sister Josephine Bryan through Catholic Relief Services, and Sister Merry Marcotte, RIP, through the Red Cross.

I am grateful for the visible sign of their service to help me remember their “unknown sacrifices” and the “magnitude of their influence.” In fact, the precursor to the current Memorial Day holiday was actually called Decoration Day. To honor the deceased , soldiers would decorate graves of their fallen comrades with flowers, flags and wreaths. The holiday did not legally become Memorial Day until 1967.

Most days we do need signs, symbols and practices to help us remember … lest we forget what is really important. Memory is a powerful tool of connection and communion.

… This past weekend, for example, during my 45th class reunion from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, I participated in a brief memorial service honoring all those alums from the celebrating classes who had died during the past five years. How powerful to have two alumnae from the Class of 1949 stand before us and with their halting 90-year-old voices alternate reading the names of the 22 friends of theirs who had died. At that moment, I felt like they were my friends, too.

… I think of the story my Uncle Romey shared with me one day while I was cutting his hair. A quiet man, I often searched for ways to connect with him and so asked him about his time as a U.S. Army pilot/bombardier during World War II. He told me about his favorite mission. He and his squadron were sent low into the Netherlands to drop boxes of food in the village squares because the Dutch people there had been cut off from supplies and were starving. Years later, as a plant manager for a manufacturing firm in Chicago, my uncle conducted a tour for a representative of a Dutch company. Out of curiosity, Romey mentioned the World War II mission to his visitor in the hopes of discovering if in fact the aid had been helpful. The man was overcome and quickly told my uncle that he and his family were in the square that day and were the recipients of his bravery. They had been surviving on tulip bulbs. My uncle, my hero.

… And finally, back to those Civil War sisters. It was Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly, successor to Mother Theodore as General Superior, who accepted the plea that the sisters should take care of the soldiers in the hospital in Indianapolis. “The sisters took charge on May 17 [1861], giving comfort to Union and Confederate soldiers.” It is not lost on me that they gave comfort to Union AND Confederate soldiers.

Most days we do need signs, symbols and practices to help us remember … lest we forget what is really important. Memory is a powerful tool of connection and communion.

This Memorial Day, I hope you will remember some hero or heroine of your own, an obscure apostle, perhaps. May they continue to rest in peace. May the magnitude of their influences bring us peace.