As we mark Positive Ageing Week 2026, we celebrate the experience, wisdom and contribution that comes with growing older, and the many ways in which older people continue to enrich the lives of those around them. This year’s theme, “Connecting Generations,” has a particular resonance within our Congregation. Our communities bring together Sisters at different stages of life, and through living, praying and sharing together, stories, experience, gifts and wisdom are passed from one generation to another.
Within our own Congregation, we are blessed to have many Sisters whose lives quietly remind us of the richness that comes with age. One such Sister is Sr Bernadette Duffy, who celebrated her 90th birthday in March. Living in a community in Dublin with 16 other Sisters, Sr Bernadette continues to take an active part in community life. She is a Minister of the Eucharist, helps in the dining room at mealtimes, assists with prayer services when needed, visits nursing homes and enjoys celebrating feast days and other occasions with the Sisters, and every now and then, she shares another gift that has been part of her life since childhood – music.
Sr Bernadette grew up in Clontarf, Dublin, the youngest of seven children – four boys and three girls – in a very close family and, as she remembers it, “a great house for music.” Although she learned to play the piano when she was younger, many years passed before she returned to it. It was only in later life that she began playing again. Then, one Christmas, someone heard her playing Silent Night on the keyboard in the chapel and asked her if she would play at Mass. That invitation brought music back into her life, and she still plays at Sunday Mass in her community. It seems fitting that something that brought such enjoyment to her family home should still have a place in her life today.
Sr Bernadette has a wonderfully practical approach to growing older – and a good sense of humour about it too. When she was young, she remembers seeing older people, including her own grandmother, sitting in an armchair by the fire, happy and content for the rest of their days. However, she has no intention of living out her twilight years in an armchair.
“There is no fire here,” she says with a smile of life in her community, “which prevents me from sitting all day!”
Behind the humour is something very much at the heart of Sr Bernadette’s outlook. She recognises that growing older brings changes and limitations. She believes it is important to acknowledge those limitations, but that does not mean stepping away from life. There are still many ways in which she can be present to others.
Her visits to nursing homes are particularly meaningful. Having trained and worked as a nurse, she is grateful to the Congregation for the opportunity she was given to train and for the ministry that followed. Her nursing experience continues to be part of what she offers others today.
Sr Bernadette’s connections with the Religious Sisters of Charity began when she was young. Her mother had a great friend in Stella Maris, Howth, Mother Francis Eucharia. “She brought me on two occasions to visit her, and I always met some of the Sisters and, of course, a beautiful afternoon tea on a tray.” Those experiences stayed with her. In time, she became a Sister of Charity herself, beginning a vocation that would shape the whole course of her life. Looking back, she speaks with real gratitude, for her vocation, for her nursing training, for the work she was able to do and for the many people and experiences that have been part of her journey. She says she has always been happy in her vocation and, although there have been challenges along the way, she never doubted it.
Her story is also a reminder of how generations connect within a Congregation. The young Bernadette encountered the kindness of the Sisters who came before her. Their witness became part of her own journey, and she in turn has spent a lifetime sharing that spirit of care and service with others.
Perhaps Sr Bernadette’s outlook on ageing is best summed up in the way she talks about the future. “I know I am in the departure lounge of my life,” she says. “I don’t know how long I will be there, but I don’t worry about it.”
During Positive Ageing Week, this outlook reminds us that growing older does not mean that life becomes smaller. Within our Congregation, each generation has something to receive and something to give. Stories are shared, gifts are rediscovered, wisdom is passed on and the bonds of community continue.
Sr Bernadette’s advice, after 90 years of life, might be the simplest of all:
Make the best of every situation, help others when you can, acknowledge your limitations – and don’t worry too much about the departure lounge.
“I have no worries about the departure lounge because with my prayer life and my trust in God and my great belief in Divine Providence, I know that at all times, all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”
