Catching Up with the School Sisters of Notre Dame

When the pandemic hit the country in mid-March, many changes were adopted to the way we live and how we remain connected with one another. As the remote fall semester comes to a close, we were able to catch up with some of our School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) and see how they have adapted to virtual space.

“It is pretty isolated, except for Zoom classes and meetings and an occasional trip to a store or to campus,” stated Sister Therese Dougherty, a professor at Notre Dame for the last 53 years. This fall, she taught two classes remotely from her home in Baltimore, Md. Since March, many SSNDs were required to quarantine and remain socially distant in order to stay healthy.

However, not all SSNDs, like Sister Jane Cayer, Sister Rita Bueche and Sister Theresa Lamy, were required to isolate. Many of their duties as essential employees include liturgy services, playing piano for the church, teaching, taking care of residents, and collaborating with the on-site nursing staff.

Many day-to-day things have been interrupted for them as well. At the Villa Notre Dame in Winston, Conn., where S. Theresa works, residents there are only allowed to have two Sisters per table for each meal. S. Rita and S. Therese used to have a weekly Sunday dinner routine of eating together at Baltimore’s Papermoon Diner on W 29th St, but since March, they have transitioned to ordering takeout and eating at home to support their favorite local restaurant.

The Sisters also use technology to keep connected with their community. S. Theresa relies on telemedicine to attend virtual doctor appointments. Online shopping for clothes or even groceries is common for all the sisters and holding online classes for NDMU, such as Women in Antiquity, via zoom is a daily activity for S. Therese.

Social distancing has still proved a challenge to the Sisters who are accustomed to a warm embrace from friends and loved ones. S. Rita says that “elbow bumps just don’t cut it.”

Even with their efforts to adapt to the current environment, there are still challenges that the SSNDs face. For S. Jane, she said that this pandemic is much more “personally invasive,” when compared to other world events that she has lived through. Across the NDMU community, COVID-19 has proven to many that it takes resiliency and unity to overcome such extreme circumstances.

However, despite the hardships that we are all going through, the SSNDs show the importance of a strong community. S. Jane offers a reflective piece of advice: “take care of one another and ask for the grace of patience.”

Our SSNDs leave with us is a message of patience, faith, and kindness during these unprecedented times. And most importantly, they remind us to share love however you can.