In Memoriam

Help us remember our Sisters.

In death, we say our ultimate human yes to God. Trusting in God’s power to bring us to the fullness of life, we conclude our earthly life with an act of worship: in the action of death we proclaim God as God, and ourselves as God’s creatures. We are called by God and sent by the community; we go in joy!

- You Are Sent, Constitution of the School Sisters of Notre Dame
S Ellen Fitzsimmons Photo
After a teaching and administration in numerous schools, Sister Ellen volunteered to experience the life of migrants who were working near Warwick, New York (1987). Later, she shared “The contrast between the beautiful, fertile farmlands, and the hard labor and poor dwellings of the migrant workers and their families really bothered me. It was a summer of learning and sharing.” Subsequently, Sister spent 13 years teaching ESL at Caroline House, in Bridgeport, “a ministry she loved.”
After graduating from Hamilton Teachers’ College, Sister Kathleen taught at St. Helen’s School, Hamilton, Sacred Heart School, Kitchener and St. Mary’s School, Owen Sound. Sister Kathleen was librarian at Sacred Heart and St. Anne’s Schools, Kitchener and at St. Clements School, Cambridge. In 1976 she moved to Beardmore in northern Ontario and taught at St. Theresa’s School. In 1980 she transferred to Pine Point, Northwest Territories and later to Fort Smith, Northwest Territories where she initiated a religion program which involved parents as well as youth in religious education. 
Mary Ann was a student at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University) for a year before going to Sacred Heart School in Baltimore as a teacher. Mary Ann continued to teach elementary classes at Our Lady of Fatima School in Baltimore, then taught high school social studies classes at St. Maria Goretti High School, Hagerstown Md. and St. Mark High School, Wilmington, Del. In her later years at St. Mark High School, Sister MaryAnn was a full-time library assistant.