One night recently I awoke, startled out of a bad dream about my first year in high school. The previous day a friend and I had been reminiscing about a favourite teacher whose funeral we had just attended. As I lay there teary eyed at 4 am, I did not need Carl Jung to interpret my dream, for there was another presence around me of a remarkable woman who understood it all too well. Yet neither of us appreciated back then what a profound influence she would have on my life.

My parents valued education and since there was no high school near I was sent as a boarder to an excellent school, well renowned for its high academic standards. However, all subjects, including foreign languages, were taught through the medium of Irish. Now imagine a sensitive young girl, first time living away from home, coming from a very laid-back country primary school (to put it mildly!) with only a few words of Irish and not knowing any other student, being thrown into this mix of challenges. As the days and weeks dragged on I became painfully aware of groups of well-prepared, happy-looking girls who were friends already from their former schools and who seemed to be flying through their schoolwork. I, on the other hand, was lost, struggling with every subject, confused, frustrated and lonely.

Attempting to understand Latin, French, Algebra, Geometry, History etc. being taught through Irish was torture for me. In hindsight, I was lucky that we were not allowed visits home in these days; I don’t think they would be able to persuade me to return! Enter Sister Laurentia, our Irish and Latin teacher who had the rare gift of breaking the bread of knowledge into well-planned, understandable crumbs, small enough even for me to grasp ever so gradually. And while all the other teachers were oblivious to my plight, she was always fully and finely tuned in.

Sr. Laurentia Faherty RIP

I can still fondly recall the little notebooks she required which we filled from cover to cover with vocabulary, declension of verbs, grammar, useful phrases etc. I actually learned the structure of grammar needed for my English and French classes from her excellent teaching of Latin and Irish. She could always find something to praise in her students; for me, in the beginning, the only thing she could praise in whatever rubbish I was writing was my “beautiful handwriting!” But praise me she did and I still remember how pleased I was for that small crumb of comfort. Mind you, there was no private tutoring or one-to-one chats about problems or difficulties in those days. Anyway, where would I start?

Luckily for me, Sister Laurentia was gifted with a particularly sensitive awareness of students who were weak and struggling. She helped them to build a solid foundation by her carefully planned teaching methods and by the manifest love she had for every student in her care, which, in turn, called forth the best from each one. She was no Miss Jane Brody but the pride she had in her students’ accomplishments was generously and freely expressed. Furthermore, she consistently taught from the heart, and her deep, genuine love for her native Irish language, culture, history and poetry was truly infectious.

I still remember dozens of poems that she taught us, as I picture her reciting them, caught up in heartfelt emotion, often with a tear in her eye. Perhaps the most tangible evidence I can offer of Sister Laurentia’s influence as a charismatic, dedicated educator is the fact that within three years of having worked diligently, I achieved honours in all seven subjects in my Inter Cert and I even won two cash prizes the following year in nationwide writing contests for critiquing radio plays in the Irish language. Guess who was proud of me then?

Believe me, all the credit goes to her, not only for my academic success but equally important, for a growing confidence in my own abilities. Through her inspiration I later became a teacher and she continued to be my model for effective teaching over the years. To the end she remained intensely interested in all her past pupils and she could even remember where they sat in her class. While visiting her in later years, I often recalled for her why she had so profoundly influenced me and turned my young life around. But even though she would invariably be very touched and grateful, in the end, she would have none of it! According to her, all the credit was mine! Typical!

Throughout her long teaching career every one of her students was important to Sister Laurentia; she related to us individually with care and respect and she seemed to have the rare gift of capturing the essence of each one of us. It is no wonder then that we, in turn, loved this gracious, remarkable woman who truly deserved the title, Sister of Mercy.

Ar dheis De go raibh a hanam uasal! (May her soul be at God’s right hand)

Rosaleen Redican

Gratitude to Rosaleen, former Sister of Mercy, who lived and worked many years in the California Region, for sharing these memories.

 

Mary Frances Coleman rsm
US Province