
Sister Frances Pollard
1940 – 2022
Born: 10th March 1940
Entered Religious Life: 7th July 1958
Died: 21st February 2022
Welcome and Reflection by Sr Mary Teresa, Provincial Leader
at the Sr Frances’s Requiem Mass.
Sr Frances, who was always known to her family as Pat, was born in Dublin on Sunday 10th March 1940 to parents, Margaret and James, who had five boys and one girl, Patricia, who later became – Sr Mary Frances.
Frances attended School in Basin Lane School and Mountjoy St, later entering the Noviciate at Mount St Annes, at the age of 18 in 1958.
After Profession of Vows in 1961, Sr Frances’ journey as a Sister of Charity, took her across the Irish Sea to St Werburg’s Parish, Birkenhead in 1961 for two years.
In 1963 Frances moved on to Clydebank, Scotland and back to Birkenhead for a short stay before continuing on her journey to Hammersmith, Walthamstow, Macclesfield, Bath, Witney and back for the third time, to her beloved Birkenhead Wirral, on the 19th January 1986. Frances worked in Parish Ministry in Birkenhead, for over 45 years in total.
Frances was very happy in Parish Ministry and cherished the title of ‘Parish Sister’ and indeed, in her last months, even as her health began to fail, she continued her visits every day and any advice to take it easy was met with the answer ‘I am the Parish Sister.’
From comments made by many parishioners of Our Lady’s and friends, Frances was indeed a ‘Sister in Christ’ to countless people over the years. One thing we all knew about Frances was, once she knew your story, she carried you ever after in her heart and prayers.
The lovely tributes on the Parish Facebook to Sr Frances are a testament to the impact she had on the lives of many generations of families in Birkenhead and indeed Frances must have quietly touched the lives of many thousands over her life through her Parish Ministry, Flame, Legion of Mary, SVP and the famous Saturday Club!
Frances was gentle, quiet and unassuming in nature, but possessed a strong spirit, had great compassion for those who were suffering or in any need, and quickly became determined to find ways to help and support them.
Frances loved the prayerful atmosphere of Lourdes, especially her own quiet moments before the Shrine in the early morning, but from the stories told and friendships made, there was a great deal of fun and laughter between the Rosaries!
Frances loved flowers, enjoyed walking and was a familiar figure walking around Birkenhead in all weathers! She also seemed to know every little parish dog by name!
It is customary among us as Sisters, to write a piece about our life and Ministries. Talking about herself was something, as we know, Sr Frances would never find easy!
So, in concluding, I would like to read the short, very simple piece which Frances wrote some years back, in which she expresses gratitude for her family, her friends in Ministry and her life as a Religious Sister of Charity:
‘’I have been blessed with wonderful parents, Margaret and James, and was the ‘favourite’ sister of five brothers. I had five very special sisters-in-law, many nieces and nephews, whom I care about and love dearly and receive great love from them. I started school at 4, with the Sisters of Charity, so have known them for a long time. It has been a great joy and a privilege to be a member of the Congregation and I thank God for His gift. I have so much to be grateful for, the Sisters I have lived with in the different Communities and the many Blessings I have received from those I have worked alongside in Ministry’’
But we know, no words can ever encompass a life or express our love and loss.
Sr Frances, Pat, a member of a family, a woman of strong faith, a Religious Sister of Charity, inspired by the charism of Venerable Mother Mary Aikenhead at a very young age, followed faithfully in the footsteps of Christ for over 60 years. We believe Sr Frances is now in the loving embrace of her Lord.
To her beloved Parishioners of Our Lady’s, her many Parish Priests and many friends, you have been part of Sr Frances’s life for over 40 years. I would like to say a very sincere thank you for the love, care and support you gave her.
+ May Frances now Rest in the Peace of the Lord +
We are standing this morning on holy ground: the place where Mary Aikenhead spent the last years of her life as an invalid – a woman whose vision, courage and practical common-sense gave birth to our Congregation and to our long and graced history of service of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable.Today we are celebrating the life of Sr. Joseph Helen, a woman who cherished that charism, serving those in need with fidelity and generosity, and who also spent the last years of her life here in the Hospice.
The readings this morning are both comforting and challenging.In the Gospel Jesus speaks of himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life.He invites us to put our hope and our trust in Him and in His promise to be with us, steadily and constantly as we try each day to walk his way, to speak his truth, to live his life.It is an apt description of the life and commitment of the woman whom we are remembering here.
In her 103 years of life, Sr. Joseph Helen lived through historical and global changes that are impossible for us to imagine.She experienced seismic shifts in Church and state.She witnessed wars and famines on a world scale.Through all of those yearsshe remained steadfastly faithful to the constant core of who she was as an RSC.She was born Dorothy Cunningham in Ballacolla in Portlaoise on 1st July 1908. She was an only girl, with one brother, and was much loved by all.Her childhood and youth reflected the calm ordinariness of children’s lives at that time.Following her degree studies she spent some months caring for her mother who was ill and then secured a job teaching in Mountjoy St. School in Dublin.Her father was not impressed!His comment on hearing of that place was:“It doesn’t sound like much of a job but you like working for the poor and you’ve always been good at it”.She remained there until she entered the Sisters of Charity on 5th October 1931.
In the first reading we are told that God gives strength to the wearied; that those who hope in Yahweh will soar like eagles, run and no grow weary, walk and never tire.That was so true of J. Helen throughout her active life.She was missioned back to Mountjoy St. after her religious profession and taught there for 12 years.Following a year’s further study in Scotland, she went to teach in a Secondary Modern school inWalthamstow in England for a year.And then came the call to be one of our three founding Sisters of the Zambian Region, or Northern Rhodesia as it then was.
In 1948 they set sail, travelling for four weeks by boat – The Athlone Castle -rail, bus and lorry before arriving in Chisekesi Siding on a dark morning on 28th October 1948. Sr. Helen kept a diary of the journey which was printed for the 50th anniversary and which gives a fascinating insight into their journey and how they coped with, what was for them, such a strange and almost ‘alien’ environment.
One can only imagine the anticipation and anxiety, the challenge and the loneliness, the wonder and the doubts that marked that journey and her first months in Zambia.It was a place and people that she came to love and cherish.She committed herself to the education of girls and brought the gift of knowledge and freedom to countless women who still remember her with gratitude and appreciation.There are many past pupils with sad hearts in Zambia at the moment – their sadness at her passing tempered only by their gratitude that she is free from the debilities of her age.And that mourning is echoed this morning among our sisters there in the Region and here in this Chapel in the sisters who lived with her and shared her life for those 30 years.
Her first 15 years in Zambia were spent in the Teacher training college run by the Jesuits and began her work in promoting the education of girls – beginning with the setting up of a girls secondary boarding school in Roma in Lusaka.Nine years later she was appointed Regional Leader and on Independence day 1978she was conferred with the Order of Distinguished Service for 30 years of outstanding service to the people of Zambia in the fields of Education and Social work.
While she was a formidable woman in many ways, with high standards and expectations, her devotion to her religious life and her commitment to education was recognized and appreciated by all who knew her.She was a strict disciplinarian, spoke the truth without apology and demanded very high standards.At the same time her heart was compassionate and her generosity and hospitality were known and appreciated by all.
Like all of us, Helen has known suffering and joy, tears and laughter, pain and happiness, loneliness and friendship.And she had strong relationships with herfriends – too numerous to mention – but exemplified in the love and devotion of Sr. Mary Bernadette Collins and Catherine Fallon.Up to the end she valued and enjoyed her relationships with her nieces, nephews and other family members and followed their lives with interest, with love and with prayer.
In 1978 she was missioned to Ireland and worked on our Constitutions.Subsequently she was appointed as local leader to our community in Crumlin before her appointment to our Provincial Leadership team and consequent arrival here in Our Lady’s Mount in 1981.
Sr. J. Helen’s commitment to Mary Aikenhead’s charism was single-minded and she never compromised on that.The second reading confirms her attitude to life:nothing outweighs the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus. It is only through Him, with Him and in Him that we can find life and happiness and fulfilment.Rooted in that conviction, she endorsed and embraced anything that served the people for whom she cared in a better, more dignified or respectful way.
She suffered in her growing debility and weakness these last years and all of us – family, community, friends and colleagues – were saddened as we watched her suffering and her struggle to cope.In spite of the wonderful, caring staff who surrounded her and the sisters and friends who were her constant support,she had difficult and dispiriting days.Yet she never gave up .Her faith in Providence was the touchstone of her life.In the midst of all her pain and letting-go she was confident that he was with her, holding her, comforting her and in the end, calling her to himself.And when that call came, sheyielded her spirit to the Lord, peace-filled, calm and trusting – blest with a death that had no struggle, no pain, no fear.And perhaps I can end with some words of hers, written in the diary of which I spoke, on her arrival in Chikuni:“Now that we have reached our Promised Land we must thank God and Our Lady for our very pleasant and on the whole easy journey which we have had . . . . “Those words echo, not only the journey to Chikuni, but her life journey, now at its end as she moves, we believe, into the fullness of the Promised land of God’s life and love.