My friend Elizabeth Hayes, the mother of the sextuplets and two sets of
twins, is happy that her children see Sister Reginald Zajac regularly because
Betty believes that nuns, especially in habit, are disappearing from the
Catholic scene.
We do, however, get to celebrate their long and dedicated lives and see how
they have embraced change.
Two Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace,
Judy Boisvert and Joan Tresch, marked 50 and 60 years in religious life
recently.
Holy Name Hospital, in Teaneck, figured prominently in Boisvert's religious
vocation. She was born there and started working there at the age of 14, but it
wasn't a happy arrangement because of a nun, a Sister of St. Joseph who worked
there.
When she decided to enter the convent, she contacted three communities and lo
and behold, the Sisters of St. Joseph were the first to respond. She thought she
would enter this group, be unhappy and wind up leaving.
"I would go in and get out," said Boisvert, reflecting that God had another
plan.
She entered in 1957, took her habit the following year and final vows in
1960. All of her ministry took place in New Jersey, where she started at St.
Elizabeth's in Wyckoff and then she taught elementary school in Whippany,
Landisville, Wayne and Norwood.
As an administrator at St. Leo's in Irvington, she stepped into urban
ministry and loved it.
"Although I had worked with inner city students during the summer in Jersey
City and Port Norris, this was my first time both working and living in an
inner-city environment. I found it absolutely wonderful and enriching. I learned
a great deal about the faith and fortitude of people who are trying to get a
better life for their children," said Boisvert, who eventually came to Sacred
Heart and the Academy of St. Aloysius, which became Caritas Academy and is now
closed, in Jersey City.
She now teaches at St. Mary's High School in Rutherford and lives alone in a
Bayonne apartment.
Tresch came from Brooklyn and commuted with her family to a farm they owned
in Washington, N.J., until they settled there in 1943.
She enrolled in the CCD program at the local parish. She thought the nuns
were "too strict" and never aspired to become one until an incident over a May
crowning made her feel empathetic for one nun.
"I watched her and wished I could be like her," said Tresch, who vowed to
enter the convent in 1947. She started out teaching in Penns Grove and spent the
next 46 years in the classroom and served twice as a principal in Wyckoff.
Most of her time was spent in Bergen County, including a stint at the
community's orphanage in Rockleigh, now closed, until she went to the
Philippines from 1965 to 1970. Returning to the United States, Tresch embarked
on a second round of teaching assignments in South River, Newark and Beverly
before taking a sabbatical in Boston.
For the last seven years she has lived in the convent attached to St. Ann's
Home in Greenville and works two days a week at St. Paul's Rectory across the
street. Looking back, she says, "I had a very good life. They took very good
care of us."
Sister of Charity Mary Fallon marks her Golden Jubilee at St. Vincent de Paul
Church, Bayonne, on Aug. 9, with a Mass at 1 p.m. Fallon is a guidance counselor
at Marist High School and lives in a Bayonne apartment.