Sister Mae Tack
1930-2011
Sister Mae Tack wrote in her 1981 autobiography:
My goal is to follow Jesus, as He was sent to be one of us, to live among women and men, to share our history. He came to proclaim the Good News of the Reign of God through reconciliation wherever people are wounded; justice wherever there is oppression; peace wherever there is tension, anxiety, or war; mercy wherever there is weakness and sin; love in all places at all times to all people.
Born in Wyandotte, Michigan, on April 19, 1930, she was the only child of Catherine (Behm) and Aloysius Tack. A premature baby, she weighed three pounds and one ounce at birth. She was named “Mae Barbara” for her mother’s oldest sister Mae, who was also the baby’s godmother, and for her mother’s mother Barbara. At age four little Mae’s tonsils were removed, and she gained some weight after that.
The young family lived in Detroit until Mae was five years old. They then moved to a country home in Riverview, a home that had belonged to an uncle who had died, where they lived until 1946 and where Mae had many pets. In 1946, when Mae was sixteen, they returned to Wyandotte.
She described her father as “six foot one, strong, good looking.” He had been blinded in one eye due to an accident in elementary school, and had trouble finding work. She wrote that he worked for the WPA, drove trucks, and did odd jobs. Her mother worked for the Firestone Company.
She had cherished memories of her family life: the garden, walks with her father, sitting on the porch with her parents in the evenings watching the sunset. When they lived in the country, a sheep field was across from their home. She, her father, and her favorite dog would go for a walk and watch the sheep and other animals in the field.
There was a bit of addiction to drink in the family, and there were also difficult times with arguments and disagreements which, however, always ended with forgiveness on both sides. There was no physical abuse. Mae was devoted to the rosary, to Mary, to St. Joseph, and to making visits to the Blessed Sacrament.
When it was time for school, Mae attended Wyandotte elementary schools: Sibley Public School and St. Joseph School with the Adrian Dominican Sisters, which required long walks and bus rides. She spent her high school years at St. Patrick School with the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Sisters, also in Wyandotte, requiring another long walk and bus ride. She wrote that she experienced the childhood diseases but missed very little school, with perfect attendance in high school. During junior and senior years of high school, she worked part-time at a department store.
World War II was being waged, and she had relatives and friends in the Service to whom she wrote frequently. From second grade on, the idea of becoming a religious Sister had been in her mind, but she had also decided to work for a year after graduation from high school. For that year she worked as cashier in a large grocery store. She also met a young man who wanted to marry her, but she decided to try the convent first. She wrote that there was a farewell picnic for her, and she tried to explain why she chose to become a Sister and what a Sister was.
On June 26, 1949, she arrived in Adrian, entered the Congregation from St. Joseph Parish in Wyandotte, and received the postulant’s veil. With her group, she received the habit and her religious name (Sister Catherine Aloysius) on December 27, and professed her first vows on December 28, 1950.
Within a short time she was on her way to Detroit, where she taught first grade at St. Jude School until December 1955. At that time, she was transferred to Illinois, as a primary teacher at Bishop Quarter Military Academy in Oak Park. She taught there for only a semester, however. In 1956, she was brought back to Michigan and taught primary children at St. Mary in Rockwood until 1960.
From that time on, her teaching ministry was to high school students, beginning with St. Lawrence in Utica, where she taught home economics, general business, religion, and some science. She studied at Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian during the summers, and earned a bachelor’s degree that she received in July 1960 with a major in home economics, and minors in English and science. In 1962 she was sent to St. Mary in Swanton, Ohio, as a teacher of home economics, history, and science.
She was changed to Dominican High School in Detroit in 1964, spending fourteen years as a home economics and religion teacher. Again she studied during the summers, but at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. As a result, in 1965 she received a master’s degree in home economics.
During these years she also engaged in other ministerial activities. She did some tutoring of women in the Wayne County jail, and enlisted her students to help in tutoring inner city children. She organized food and clothing drives and visited hospitals. Her parents were ill, in a nursing home for several years, then in an apartment. Her mother was in a wheelchair. Mae helped to care for them, aided by the other sisters and some of the students, and would often bring them to Dominican High to visit. Her mother died during the summer of 1971, and her father in 1973.
When she decided to leave Dominican High in 1978, she applied for Clinical Pastoral Education, but did not carry through on it, and took some summer theology courses at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
For eight summers, Sister Mae took part in an institute designed for ongoing formation of religious persons engaged in ministry. There she met Father Tom Pfeffer, who in 1978 invited her to Des Moines, Iowa, where she ministered for eight years. She spent two years serving St. Joseph Education Center as a home arts teacher at Bishop Dowling High School and six years as Director of Religious Education at Christ the King Parish. This program began with pre-school and elementary school students, and grew into high school and adult classes. She wrote, “I enjoy what I’m doing and am grateful that I am allowed to be independent and creative in my thoughts and ideas.” Her program was successful, and well supported by the pastor, parish council, and parents of the students.
Her last years in ministry were in Michigan. She began a ministry of caring for the elderly. In 1986 she became a live-in companion for Sister Mary James Hickey’s mother in Dearborn, until March 1989, and finished the year as a live-in companion in Farmington Hills. From November 1989 to July 1990, she served Community Living Centers, also in Farmington, as a housekeeper. Her health was going down, and in 1990 she curtailed her activities and became a tutor at the Langua Center in Birmingham. When she was diagnosed with cancer, as Sister Jo Gaugier said, “her life became a litany of doctor appointments, surgeries, chemo, and radiation.” Then came into being her favorite saying, “Here I am Lord, I come to do Your will—but may I have five more years.”
Sister Mae returned to Adrian in 1991. In 2007 she wrote, “I was brought from Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak in 1991 . . . after pelvic and colon surgery, to die at Maria Health Care Center.” God, however, decided that her time had not come. She recovered somewhat and, unable to be idle, she began to serve the community. She lived in the Regina residence and helped part-time in the Congregational mailroom, on the switchboard, and as an evening receptionist.
In 1998, ill health forced her to cease her service, and in 2004 she moved into the Maria Building. There, even though somewhat incapacitated, she found a way to serve her sisters. Sister Joan Sustersic said that at the Communion time of Mass, Sister Mae, in her Amigo (electric wheelchair) and with her pyx, would meet the Sister carrying the hosts to the second floor South and would take the Eucharist to some of the Sisters on the second floor of Maria who were unable to get to the chapel.
In November 2011 surgery was necessary for her relief and comfort. Sisters Betty Flaherty and Rosemary Asaro visited her at the hospital shortly before her surgery. Sister Betty said, “As usual, Mae was all smiles, laughing, watching the Michigan State football game on the TV.” God took her to eternity a month later, on December 3, 2011, at the age of eighty-one.
A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Mae on December 7 in St. Catherine Chapel. Sister Jo Gaugier, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, welcomed Sister Mae’s cousins and friends, including her many Dominican friends, who had come to bid her farewell. She extended sympathy, summarized Sister Mae’s life and ministry, and added:
Her prayer, “Here I am, Lord,” came to being last Saturday nearing midnight at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. With two of us at her side, haltingly singing “Hail, Holy Queen,” Sister Mae passed to eternal life and peace. Throughout her life she generously gave and gave and gave in many varied ways. She will be remembered for her generous spirit.
Sister Betty Flaherty spoke for Sister Mae’s “crowd.” She said in part:
I represent the Holy Year Crowd of which Mae Tack was a special member, a kind of mother figure to us from the beginning till this last month.
As postulants, Mae taught us how to manage a variety of obediences, from darning those black stockings to baking breads. Mae was born to be a home economics major! On mission she was everyone’s best friend. Her cooking and sewing talents were as popular in the convent as in the schools. The girls and their mothers lined up very early to enroll in Mae’s Home Ec classes during her many years at Dominican High.
Mae was an only child whose parents had illnesses that gradually confined both of them to assisted living facilities. I was blessed to be her companion on many a Saturday afternoon when she would visit them. . . . They were so proud of her, as she was of them.
About twenty years ago Mae herself developed serious health issues. She announced that she had made a bargain with God. “God, give me five more years.” And she renewed that request every five years. During these years, Mae became a kind of secretary for our Holy Year Crowd. She carried a notebook in the basket of her Amigo with all our names, birthdays, locations, etc. in it.
Sister Joan Sustersic also spoke. Some of her remarks are quoted below.
When Mae came to Adrian in 1991 she was still driving a car to Detroit to see her dentist, and on her way back she stopped to visit with her cousins—probably once or twice a year. Of course, being an only child, they were her family. She may not have had any blood sisters, but she had Dominican sisters in abundance.
At first she walked with a cane, then resorted to using an Amigo. As we all do, she tried to maintain her independence, and the Amigo enabled her to get anywhere on campus. . . . Her mind was great, but the body wasn’t keeping up. . . . Mae knew that God could call her at any time. She lived accordingly and she was ready!
Sister Mary Alice Naour also shared remembrances.
I lived and worked with Sister Mae at Dominican High in Detroit. . . . Mae’s students loved her dearly, and she loved them in return. She might get a little exasperated with them, but she really didn’t scold. I don’t think she had it in her to scold. . . . She was happy, full of stories, but always so pleasant, even when she was not feeling well.
Jeanne Chrisman, who was our drama director, remembers the hours and hours that Sisters Mae and Ann Fallon gave to making costumes . . . how Mae studied the customs and dress of the Amish before making costumes for “Plain and Fancy.” She was that special hand behind the scenes, the one you never see but who always comes through when needed.
Sister Mae’s funeral liturgy took place on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Father Robert Kelly, OP, Motherhouse Chaplain, was the presider and homilist. Her cousins and many of her friends accompanied her casket to the Congregational cemetery, where her body was laid to rest in one of the circles. As Sister Joan said, “We will miss her laughter and her thoughtfulness. May she rest gently in the arms of God.”