Sister Frances Lombard
Sister Frances Lombard1928 – 2015
Born: 30th March 1928
Entered Religious Life:
Died: 27th October 2015
Sr. Frances Lombard was born to Hanora and William Lombard on the 31 March, 1928 in Kilmalcoda, Co. Cork. The most important part of that address is Cork, she was very proud to be a Cork woman. She had two sisters with the Presentation Sisters, May and Ann in Western Australia, and her sister Elizabeth was a Mercy Sister in Colwyn Bay. Her brothers were Jack, Willie, Dominic, Brendan, Coleman, Anthony and Pat. She received her early education at the Convent of Mercy, Clonakilty, and later attended the College of Home Economics run by the Sisters of St. Louis, Ramsgrange, Co. Wexford. She entered the Religious Sisters of Charity on the 3rd February 1947. She received the habit and the names Teresa Aloysius on the 5th August 1947. She was professed on the 13th August 1949.
She began her religious life in Hackney where she worked in the Parish, then came short spells in Donnybrook, St. Vincent’s, Cork, Baldoyle and Cappagh. She then spent two years training in Nursery Management. She ministered in Temple Hill from 1958 until 1987. Her main Apostolate was with children. Her ministry included the care of infants prior to their adoption and the management of a Training School for Nursery Nurses. These Nursery Nurses were much sought after by families and nurseries.
In 1987 she was appointed Local Leader in St. Joseph’s, Kilkenny and she was in that position until the convent closed in 1989. In January 1988 she was appointed Resident Manager of Childcare Services in St. Joseph’s, a position she held until she went on sabbatical in 1994. After her sabbatical she returned to live in St. Patrick’s, Kilkenny. During this time she had an office in the grounds of the former St. Joseph’s Convent and was involved in Pastoral Care. She worked on the Aftercare Team with young adults, all of whom had been resident in St. Joseph’s. She was also involved in providing records to past residents.
Many of the past residents kept up with her. A day after her death a card arrived from a colleague who had worked with her in Kilkenny saying how wonderful she was caring for children and he enjoyed working with her because she was always ‘professional and fair’.
She was of a quiet disposition, very intelligent and a woman of prayer. She loved music, horses and took a keen interest in the Royal Family and loved the many pictures of them in HELLO magazine which her niece sent to her very frequently. Her family were wonderfully supportive of her and visited her as often as possible, she loved them all dearly.
She went to Providence community, Merrion in 2011 and soon after became a resident in Loyola. Some of these years were very difficult for her, particularly in the beginning, but she never complained and when asked ‘how are you?’ she always replied, ‘I’m fine,’ with a smile. She eventually settled down and appreciated how good the nurses and carers were to her. She died peacefully in Loyola on the 27th October, 2015. She was laid to rest in Donnybrook Cemetery after her funeral Mass in Merrion Convent Chapel. May she rest in peace.
Sr. Joseph Helen Cunningham.
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.
